


f ♦ 



.♦^■v 



"^ • 










••«Ww^» O JT 










.' .^^-^ '. 























O 



^-^^■^^ 



0" " " ** ♦ *rt .K^ •>•' • 







THE AUTHORIZED CAMPAIGN EDITION. 

Price] [25 cts. 

LIFE AND PUBLIC SEMICES 




HON. JAMES BUCIAMN 



NEW YORK: 
LIVERMORE & -RUDD, 310 BROADWAY, 

1856. 



IN PRESS, 

HISTORY AND KECORDS 



THE ELEPHANT CLUB 

12mo., Cloth. Price $1 00. 



No writer who has appeared before the American public has met, in so 
short a period, with such success as he, who within less than two years 
unpremeditatedly laid the foundation of his fame as the 

GREAT AMERICAN WIT AND HUMORIST, 

by a scries of letters written over the imposing signature of 

Q. K. PHILANDER DOESTICK'S, P.B., 

Their appearance marks the birth of a new school of humor, and the 
unprecedented sale of his first volume, *' Doesticks, What He Says," as 
also the popularity of his poem, " Plu-ri-bus tah," is sufficient evidence of 
their originality and literary excellence. 

^ SECOjrn pnosE i^onin sjrnoESTiCKS 

is now in press and will be issued in September. In the perpetration of 
which, he has been aided and abetted by 

a humorist of celebrity. 

The work has been illustrated from original designs by the best Artists, 
and the Publishers believe it will enjoy a greater popularity than either 
of the Author's preceding works. 

*^* Copies sent by mail to any address, on receipt of $1 00. 

LIYERMORE & RUDD, PUBLISHERS, 

310 Broadway, N. Y. 

W. H. Tinson, Stereotyper, 24 Beeknuin Btreet. 




HON. JAMES BUOHANAN. 



THE 



LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

n 



HON. JAMES BUCHANAN 



OF 



PENNSYLVANIA, 



TWENTIETH THOUSAND 



NEW YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY LIVERMORE & RUDD, 



810 


BEOADWAY 




1856. 


« 


' CUkLw X 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, 

By LITERMOKE & EUDD, 

In the Clerk's Office of the Bistrict Court of the United States, for the Southern 
District of New York, 






>^ ) \*mH 



K. C. VALENTINE, 

■TERtOTTPER AND KLECTROTYFIOT, 
M Diitch-st., cor. Fulton, N. Y. 



LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

OF 

HON. JAMES BUCHAIAI, 



It has been said with much truth, that the history of 
a nation is but a record of the thoughts and actions of 
its great men. A movement which inaugurates a better 
political and social order, is but the aspirations of the 
people crystallizing into form under the influence of 
great minds, whose thoughts are the source of the his- 
torical events of all progressive nations. The impress 
of those minds is to be found in the archives of the na- 
tion ; and this fact is apparent in the ratio of the people 
being accorded their just rights. To trace a thought 
which originated a political movement to the mind 
which evolved it, is a difficult task under a despotism, 
because there the individuality even of those intellects 
which influence the action of the throne becomes lost in 
the throne itself — the king being the incarnation of all 
political movement. But as the field of human rights is 
enlarged, and the great political truth, that governments 
derive their just powers from the consent of the gov- 
erned, becomes acknowledged, can the historian dis- 
cover the origin of each change in the political order of 
a nation, whether the change be in respect to the prin- 
ciples which lie at the base of the governmental struc- 
ture, or whether it regard a question of policy in the 
conduct of its afikirs. An untrammelled press, the in- 
dispensable adjunct of free institutions, multiplies the 



4 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF 

evidences of historic trnth, upon whicli the historian 
must rely in forming his conclusions. In no country in 
the world is the origin of great political movements so 
clearly traceable as in our own young but giant Repub- 
lic. From the time when the impulse of self-reliance, 
developed in our forefathers, in felling forests and re- 
pelling the attacks of savages single-handed, assumed, 
under the interpretation of the fathers of the Revolution, 
the form of a determination for self-government, the his- 
tory of our country has been identical with and insep- 
arable from the records of the public acts of our great 
men. Great political emergencies test the intellectual, 
moral, and physical vitality of a nation ; and the best 
proof of the excellence of our institutions is the success 
with which our people have met and triumphed over 
every difficulty. Our statesmanship has been worthy of 
the free institutions under which it has been nurtured. 
The archives of no nation can show in their statesmen 
such pureness of patriotism, nobility of sentiment, moral 
sublimity, and intellectual grandeur, as are the charac- 
teristics of American statesmen. We can point in our 
history to very many brilliant examples of such men. 
To recount the acts in the public service of any of the 
list is but doing an historic justice ; but when he, the re- 
membrance of whose acts the biographer aids to per- 
petuate, is a man whose integrity is beyond dispute; 
whose morality has never been assailed ; whose states- 
manship is assigned a place among the first ; whose po- 
litical consistency, extending over a period of near forty 
years, is without just criticism ; whose erudition is large 
and varied ; whose devotion to the principles which un- 
derlie our Republic is not doubted ; whose conservatism 
would lead to counsels of moderation and conciliation, 
to insure peace at home and abroad, but whose love of 
national honor is too deep-seated to sufier any insult to 
our escutcheon, or aggression to our rights, without a 
pr^*vipt resentment ; whose public life has been a contin- 



HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. % 

uons protest against forced constitutional constniction 
attempted to secure party ends ; whose able expositions 
of the Constitution have given him a high place in the 
temple of constitutional law ; whose walks in diplomacy 
have only added new honors to his name ; who has pre- 
served amid all the honoi-s conferred upon him a retiring 
modesty ever his characteristic ; whose gallantry and 
gentlemanly bearing are jDroverbial ; and whose private 
life is without blot or stain ; — when all these are the 
facts which are connected with the subject of a bio- 
graphical sketch, the duty of preparing the work be- 
comes a pleasure. Such are the facts connected with 
him a sketch of whose life and public services will b 
found in the following pages. 

James Buchanan was born on the 23d day of April, 
1791. On the sixty-fifth anniversary of his birthday, he 
arrived in the city of iN'ew York, after an absence of 
three years as the representative of the Republic of the 
United States at the Court of St. James, and received 
the glad welcome of the thousands of citizens in New 
York who are ever ready to acknowledge their gratitude 
to an honored representative of our institutions abroad. 

Mr. Buchanan, like many others of the great men 
who have left their mark in the history of our Republic, 
was of humble origin. On either side, his parents 
were of Irish birth, and were of the Irish families who 
emigrated to this country in the latter part of the last 
century. The parents settled in Franklin county, Penn- 
sylvania, where James, the eldest child, was born. Of 
the other children, only one now survives. Rev. Edward 
Y. Buchanan, a distinguished clergyman of the Prot- 
estant Episcopal Church, who resides at Oxford, Phila- 
delphia county, Pa. By dint of industry and economy, 
the parents were enabled to secure sufficient means to 
educate their children. The indications at an early age 
of the possession of rare intellectual qualities on the 



6 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF 

part of James, determined the parents to give him all 
the facilities they could to aid him in a career of great- 
ness which many who observed his course in youth be- 
lieved was marked out for him. Having completed a 
course of elementary studies, he entered Dickinson 
College, Carlisle, Cumberland county, Pa., where he 
graduated with distinction. While at college, he enjoy- 
ed a high popularity both among his fellow-students 
and among the citizens and families of Carlisle. He 
was noted for his high-spirited, patriotic, and self-reliant 
feeling. On leaving college, Mr. Buchanan designed to 
make Baltimore his future residence. Being at leisure 
for some weeks, he paid a visit to the West, with the 
view of ascertaining its physical capacities. On return- 
ing, by the advice of friends, and on mature reflection, 
he changed his determination, and decided to adopt the 
profession oLthe law, and build up his fortunes in his 
native State. J He entered the office of James Hopkins, 
Esq., a distinguished member of the bar of Lancaster 
county, the great agricultural county of Pennsylvania, 
where he has since continued to reside, except when he 
has been called by the choice of the people or the Exec- 
utive head of the nation to occupy positions of the 
highest honor and responsibility in the councils of his 
State, the nation, the Cabinet, or in diplomacy. 

Having completed his preliminary studies, he entered 
upon the active duties of his profession. During many 
succeeding' years, he rose to the highest class of legal 
minds ; and at a time when Pennsylvania could boast of 
her Baldwins, her Gibsons, her Rosses, her Duncans^ 
her Breckenridges, her Tilghmans, her Hopkinses, her 
Jenkinses, her Dallases, and her Semples, he was pre- 
pared for the struggles of the future, and soon became 
conspicuous among those who had but few equals in 
their 'own times, and whose fame is still chtrished 
among the most agreeable recollections of the inhab- 
itants of Pennsylvania. The practice of law in Penn- 



HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. f 

Bylvania forty years since, as it now is in newly-settled 
States, was attended with features of a peculiar charac- 
ter. Railroads and telegraphs were then unknown. 
The only means of public conveyance then was the 
cumbersome stage-coach. These, however, afforded but 
few facilities to the lawyer in riding his circuit, the 
limits of which were sometimes hundreds of miles dis- 
tant from his residence. And it was during Mr. Bu- 
chanan's early professional experience that he estab- 
lished himself in the confidence of his fellow-citizens in 
all parts of the State, and formed those relations which 
have continued to strengthen up to the present moment ; 
and h^ stands now confessedly the leading man of his 
State. 

It was soon after Mr. Buchanan commenced the prac- 
tice of the law, during the late war with Great Britain, 
that the English army, flushed with victory, threatened 
the destruction of the city of Baltimore. News of the 
intended attack was sent by express throughout the land. 
A meeting was called in the city of Lancaster, and the 
first prominent speech which Mr. Buchanan ever made 
was made on that occasion. It was a patriotic appeal for 
citizens to arm themselves and proceed to the scene of 
the expected invasion to defend our country's cause ; and 
when he had concluded his speech, he enrolled his 
name as a private at the head of the list of a company 
of volunteers which promptly responded to the call made. 

In 1814, whilst Mr. Buchanan was yet in his twenty- 
fourth year, he was elected a member of the Legislature 
of Pennsylvania, and during his term of office he dis- 
tinguished himself by exhibitions of intellectual strength 
and skill in debate, which gave promise of future emi- 
nence. The favor with which his ability in the legisla- 
tive councils was looked upon, is indicated by the action 
of the people a few years later, when Mr. Buchanan was 
elected to the House of Representatives, which position 
ho retained during five successive serious of Congress — - 



8 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF 

a period extending from 1820 to 1830 — he voluntarily 
retiring after the first Congress under the administration 
of President Jackson. He was the warm and ardent 
defender of the administration of Mr. Monroe, the active 
opponent of the administration of John Quincy Adams, 
and the consistent and trusted friend of Andrew Jack- 
eon. The proceedings show that while he retained a 
seat in the popular branch of Congress, he took a promi- 
nent part in all the debates upon great public questions. 
As early as 1815, he entertained opinions hostile to the 
constitutionality of the Bank of the United States, and 
in the fierce struggles which ensued upon the election 
)f the hero of New Orleans, he was a distinguished 
champion of the Democratic party. Probably the niost 
interesting part of Mr. Buchanan's history, was his early 
and efiective support of General Jackson for the Presi- 
dency. He was one of the first advocates of the hero 
of New Orleans. More than thirty years ago, as a mem- 
ber of the House of Kepresentatives of the United States, 
he was recognized as among the most active and devoted 
friends of Jackson. Distinguished for his eloquence and 
his judgment, even in that period of his life, he con- 
tributed greatly to produce the state of feeling which 
afterwards put General Jackson forward as the Demo- 
cratic candidate, — Pennsylvania taking the lead. 

After retiring from Congress in 1831, he received 
from General Jackson, unsolicited, the tender of the mis- 
sion to Pussia. He accepted that mission. How he dis- 
charged its grave duties, the archives of the legation 
and of the State Department will show. Among other 
acts, he rendered the country important and valuable 
service, by negotiating the first commercial treaty be- 
tween the United States and Russia, which our gov- 
ernment had been vainly endeavoring to secure for 
twenty years, and which secured to our commerce the 
ports of the Baltic and Black Sea, and insured to us a 
valuable and continually increasing trade. " What repu- 



HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 9 

tation he left behind him, those who succeeded him are 
willing to attest. The chaste and manly tribute to his 
splendid abilities, at St. Petersburg, paid during the 
proceedings of the Pennsylvania State Convention, which 
assembled on the 4th of March, 1856, by his immediate 
successor in the American legation at that court, the 
Hon. William Wilkins, shows something of the habits 
and capacities of Mr. Buchanan. Judge Wilkins on 
that occasion said : " St. Petersburg was full of admira- 
tion of the American statesman ; and so effectually did 
he perform his duties there, and so effectually did he 
endear this government to Pussia, and so effectually did 
he arrange the commercial and diplomatic concerns of 
the two countries, that he left nothing in the world for 
him (Mr. Wilkins) to do but to state that he was his 
humble successor. He had preoccupied the ground and 
filled the demands of his government." 

Shortly after Mr. Buchanan's return from the Russian 
mission, the Democrats in the Legislature of Pennsylva- 
nia made him their candidate for the United States 
Senate, and elected him. He remained in the Senate 
from the 6th of December, 1834, until his resignation, 
March 3, 1845, having been twice re-elected during that 
period of time. 

The distinguished services rendered by him during 
that period are a part of the history of the country, and 
will be more fully adverted to in these pages. In the 
debate on the admission of Arkansas and Michigan ; in 
his opposition to the reckless course of the Abolitionists ; 
in his resistance and exposure of the schemes of the 
Bank of the United States, after it had been transferred 
to Pennsylvania, as a vast political moneyed monopoly ; 
in his opposition to a profuse expenditure of the public 
revenue, for the creation of an unnecessary public debt ; 
a government bank of discount, circulation, and deposit, 
under the British name of Exchequer ; a substitution of 
paper money for the constitutional currency of silver 

1* 



10 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF 

and gold ; tlie surrender of M'Leod upon the insulting 
demand of England ; the unjust distribution of the pub- 
lic revenue to the States of this Confederation ; in his 
courageous hostility to special legislation, no matter how 
concealed; he co-operated with Wright, Woodbury, 
Benton, King, Linn, and other leading Democrats of that 
day. As chairman of the Committee on Foreign Rela- 
tions, during a series of years, in the Senate of the Uni- 
ted States, he sustained the honor of the nation, by his 
unanswerable demonstration of the right of each State 
to punish a foreign murderer, who, in time of peace, 
kills an American citizen upon its own soil. His mas- 
terly expositions of our unquestionable title to the IN'orth- 
east Boundary Line were upheld by the decisions ot 
Congress, and he won high honor for his opposition to a 
treaty which gave a large portion of the American ter- 
ritory to a foreign government. He was the advocate of 
a liberal and enlightened policy in regard to the public 
lands. During the memorable extra session -of one hun- 
di-ed days, when the opponents of the Democracy, in the 
Senate of the United States, had resolved- to push 
through a series of high federal measures, beginning 
with the Bank of the United States, and ending with the 
Bankrupt Law, Mr. Buchanan was constantly in his seat, 
and was frequently put forward as the leader of his 
party in certain trying emergencies. An early and a 
fervent advocate of the annexation of Texas, he signal- 
ized his career in that body by giving his views on that 
important question to his countrymen, in a speech of un- 
surpassed ability and power. 

In 1844 Mr. Polk was triumphantly elected to the 
Presidency, as the representative of the principles of 
the Democracy. The complications then existing with 
foreign powers — and with Great Britain and Mexico par- 
ticularly — growing out of the unsettled state of the 
Oregon boundary question, and the annexation of Texas, 
rendered the exercise of the highest wisdom on the part 



HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 11 

of the President elect, doubly imperative in. the selection 
of his cabinet. Casting his eye over the long roll of 
Democratic statesmen then living, weighing the claims 
and qualifications of each and all, profoundly sensible of 
the exciting questions which must come up for adjust- 
ment during his administration, and after consulting, thfc 
venerable sage then in the sunset of life in the shades of 
the Hermitage, Mr. Polk invited Mr. Buchanan to ac- 
cept the portfolio of the State Department — the head of 
his cabinet. To accept this responsible and exalted posi- 
tion, Mr. Buchanan resigned his seat in the Senate to 
which he had been but recently re-elected. In that junc- 
ture, perhaps no better selection could have been made. 
Mr. Buchanan was recognized as one of the most gallant, 
able, and faithful champions of the Democratic party. 
In the Senate, he occupied a position as the proudly 
recognized equal of the most distinguished members of 
that august body. His natural dignity of deportment, 
easy and conciliatory manners — his well-established rep- 
utation, unsullied by a blemish, secured to him not only 
the entire confidence of the Democratic side, but gave 
him with the opposition a strength and influence possess- 
ed by few of the illustrious statesmen, whose brilliant 
talents adorned the Senate of the United States. 

Hon. Lucien B. Chase, for four years a member of 
Congress, and who has written the history of Mr. Polk's 
administration, thus speaks of Mr. Buchanan in connec- 
tion with his selection by Mr. Polk to fill the Secretary- 
ship of State. 

" The long service of Mr. Buchanan in the Senate, 
where he had encountered in debate the profoundest 
statesmen in the land, qualified him thoroughly for the 
department of State. Logical and sound in his reason- 
ing, with a sagacity which could discover dangers in the 
future, and the ability to avoid them, however threaten- 
ing and sudden their approach, he was always a formi- 
dable foe tc meet. His diplomatic communications gave 



13 LIFE ANP PUBLIC SERVICES OF 

evidence of thorough preparation, and in every contiict 
between himself and the representatives of foreign pow- 
ers, they retired discomfited before his unanswerable 
arguments. His judgment was sound and comprehen- 
sive, and his mind was enriched by a course of long and 
painful study. In the Senate he never yielded to the 
glittering blade of Clay, nor to the ponderous falchion of 
w ebster. But whenever he addressed that body, it was 
with a majesty of diction, an amplitude of information, 
and an iron and irresistible strength of reasoning which 
never failed to convince, where it did not control." 

The administration of Mr. Polk was one, of the most 
distinguished in the history of our nation. From its 
commencement it was beset with difficulties of no ordi- 
nary nature ; and, inasmuch as those difficulties were 
connected with our foreign relations, the burden of their 
solution fell upon the State Department. 

The question as to the ^N'orthwestern boundary line 
between the United States and Great Britain, known as 
the " Oregon Question," had been a source of dispute 
between the two governments since the abrogation of 
the articles for their joint occupation of the territory. 
This abrogation rendered the settlement of the boundary 
question a matter of great moment, in the determination 
of the limits of the respective jurisdictions of the two 
countries, to vouchsafe to the inhabitants protection to 
their lives and property. The unsettled state of this 
question of the Oregon boundary gave rise to serious 
complications in our affairs with Great Britain, and 
gi-eat fears, not without cause, were entertained that they 
would lead to a war between the two nations. The 
southern line of the Russian Possessions, 64:° 40', was 
strongly contended for by the most of the members of 
the Democratic party, as the northern boundary of Ore- 
gon — ^which would leave Great Britain no possessions on 
the Pacific coast. The claim of the United States to 
the line of 54° 40' was very generally acceded to be 
just, and Mr. Buchanan, in his speeches whilst in the 



HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. $Z 

Senate, and in his communications as Secretary of State, 
held to that view. But whilst this was very generally 
acknowledged, there was a strong feeling among the 
people adverse to a collision with Great Britain, in view 
of the threatened difficulties with Mexico, and especially 
in view of the embarrassments that would be likely to 
result to the commercial interests of the country by the 
suspension of peaceful relations between the two na- 
tions. Another consideration which weighed in the 
minds of some, was, that the territory in dispute was 
comparatively valueless, and if a reasonable compromise 
of existing differences could be obtained, it would be 
preferable to war. This view was urged, as well by 
leading members of the Democratic party, as by others ; 
and while the question was thus pending, Mr. Polk sent 
a communication to the Senate, announcing his willing- 
ness to renew negotiations with the British Minister for 
the settlement of the disputed question, and to accept 
any proposition in settlement which should meet with 
the acceptance of two-thirds of the members of the 
Senate. The President stated, however, that his views 
and opinions upon the question, as given in his annual 
message, remained unchanged. By this action, the re- 
sponsibility of a settlement of the question was thrown 
upon the Senate. Negotiations were renewed — the line 
of 49° was accepted as a compromise, and was finally 
ratified by the Senate by a vote of 41 to 14. The wis^ 
dom of this course is now not seriously questioned 
by any. 

The war with Mexico was the great event connected 
with the administration of Mr. Polk. This war grew 
out of the annexation of Texas— which territory, in vio- 
lation of our treaty with France, our Government ceded 
to Spain in 1819. Its reannexation as a State in the 
confederacy was carried as a Democratic measure, and 
the event was followed on the part of Mexico by acts of 
aggression on the frontier of Texas, she claiming Texas 



14 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF 

as a part of her territory, notwithstanding that, by the 
laws of nations, Texas was de jure independent, — 
Mexico having forfeited all right of jurisdiction over 
her, by violating the articles of the Mexican confed- 
eration, and driving her Legislature from her capitol 
by force of arms, — and de facto independent, Texas, 
predicating her action upon the bad faith of Mexico, 
having fought for and achieved her independence. Santa 
Anna, whose influence as a military leader was then at 
its zenith in Mexico, recruited his armies, by which the 
borders of Texas were soon menaced. But under the 
prompt action of our administration, our forces, con- 
sisting of regulars and volunteers, were soon at the 
scene of conflict, and, though greatly inferior in num- 
bers, they triumphed in every engagement over the 
Mexican army, until the conquering hosts, marshalled 
under the flag of the Union, penetrated to the capital of 
the enemy's empire. To enter into' even a summary of 
the events of this war is beyond the scope and intention 
of this work. Suffice it to say, that the war added new 
lustre to American arms ; whilst the spectacle of citi- 
zens, voluntarily enlisting for the war by thousands, 
was one without parallel in modern history, and the 
effect, in increasing the respect of other nations for 
our people and our institutions, has been of itself a 
great moral achievement. The result of the war was 
the extension of our borders on the Pacific Ocean, by 
the acquisition of Upper California, already a young 
and giant State, with all her mineral wealth, and the 
acquisition of JS'ew Mexico and Utah. Without detract- 
ing from the honors that belong to our gallant army who 
fought our battles, — and they are great, — the faithful 
historian must acknowledge that to those who planned 
the campaign, and the subsequent negotiations and trea- 
ties, are due the highest honors ; and their memories 
will be held in veneration by untold millions, who, in 
coming ages, are to live and prosper on that new terri- 



HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. Jft 

tory, amid all the blessings, moral, intellectual, and 
physical, that a free Eepublic alone can confer. To Mr. 
Buchanan, whose masterly executive talents grappled 
successfully with the diflaculties that had to be overcome 
dm-ing that administration, belongs much of the honor 
and praise of that bright page in our political history. 

At the close of Mr. Polk's administration, Mr. Bu- 
chanan retired to his quiet and pleasant home at Wheat- 
land, near Lancaster, Pa., with the determination, fre- 
quently expressed to his intimate friends, never again to 
accept office. It was his intention to devote the remain- 
der of his life to the preparation of a work designed for 
posthumous publication, embodying a history of the na- 
tion during the period he had been in public life — be- 
ginn^ing with the administration of Mr. Madison and the 
war of 1812, and extending to the close of the adminis- 
tration of Mr. Polk. He entered actively into the col- 
lection of material for this work, and during the suc- 
ceeding four years continued to employ himself in its 
preparation. But his interest in the success of the 
Democracy was as great as ever. In the conflicts be- 
tween it and the enemies of the Constitution he was not 
an idle spectator. He was in the front ranks of the 
Democracy, demanding a broad, radical, and distinct 
Recognition of the rights of the States, which cannot be 
equal unless they are shared honestly and fairly between 
the people of all sections of the Union. Everywhere 
the Democracy of his State felt and followed his wise 
and patriotic counsels. He was as vigilant in his duties 
as a private in the ranks of the people, as he was prom- 
inent as a counsellor in the Cabinet, and a Representa- 
tive and Senator in Congress. 

Mr. Buchanan took an active interest in the Presiden- 
tial contest of 1852, which resulted so successfully to 
the Democracy. Mr. Pierce was triumphantly elected 
;o the Presidency, and on the 4th of March, 1853, was 
inaugurated. Circumstances had transpired within the 



16 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF 

few previous years, which made the American mission 
to the Court of St. James unusually important. How- 
ever necessary to both the cultivation of continued peace 
and good-will, the fact that Great Britain sees our 
growing progress with jealousy and alarm, and the fact 
that we behold her jpragmatical interference upon this 
Continent, wherever an opportunity is presented to her, 
with indignation, render our relations with Great Britain 
of the most delicate character. The very intimacy ot 
our business connections, constituting, as it does, the real 
cord which binds us together, is apt, moreover, to come 
in conflict with political considerations, and the com- 
mercial attrition, so to speak, throws into dangerous 
neighborhood English ambition on the one hand, and 
American progress on the other. It has become pro- 
verbial that the selection of a wise, able, and experi- 
enced man to represent the United States at the British 
Court, is one of the first duties of an Executive, hardly 
secondary to the selection of its own chief Cabinet 
ministers, because the English mission is always in- 
tensely important to the immediate interests of our 
people. 

The " Fishery Question," which had brought the 
United States and Great Britain, at one time, to the 
verge of war, the questions growing out of our rela- 
tions with Central America, and the enforcement -^f the 
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty ; the question of the re^ .ation 
upon free-trade principles of the commerce of the United 
States and Canada, — all of vital importance to the wel- 
fare of the two countries, — were still pending. The 
Eastern War, too, then clearly foreshadowed, rendered 
it doubly imperative that the United States should be 
represented at the leading capital of Europe by our fore- 
most living statesman — by one who thoroughly under- 
stood our rights as neutrals, and would be able to en- 
force upon the belligerent cabinets the great American 
doctrine, that " free ships make free goods." Public 



HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. It 

opinion universally indicated Mr. Buchanan as pre-emi- 
nently the man for the mission ; and so warmly was he 
urged to accept it, and so flattering to himself, and so 
exacting npon his patriotism, were the grounds upon 
which his acceptance was pressed, that he could no 
longer persist in his hesitation ; but with that careful 
and just regard to the gallant corps of Democrats who 
had carried Pennsylvania for " Pierce and King," he 
made it a condition of his acceptance, that his appoint- 
ment should not be considered as accorded to his State, 
thereby diminishing in the least the share of appoint- 
ments to which Pennsylvania was entitled. The condi- 
tion was freely assented to, and Mr. Buchanan was ap- 
pointed, not as a Pennsylvanian, but as a citizen from 
the country at large. 

It was well known that no motive had such a con- 
trolling weight in reconciling Mr. Buchanan to the sur- 
render of the pleasures and the pursuits of his retirement, 
as the hope that he might be the means of terminating 
all our controversies with Great Britain, and satisfacto- 
rily adjusting our relations with that power, in one 
grand comprehensive treaty, upon a firm, honorable, 
and enduring basis. No higher consideration could 
have presented itself to the mind and heart of a patriot ; 
and no less a motive could have induced Mr. Buchanan 
to again resume a public career, which he had gladly 
regarded as forever closed. 

Mr. Buchanan arrived in London in June, 1853, and 
entered upon the discharge of the duties of his mission. 
It is a matter of sincere regret that, at the very outset of 
Mr. Buchanan's diplomatic career, the Cabinet saw fit to 
withdraw from his control two of the very important 
questions which were then unsettled — the " Fishery 
Question," and the question of adjusting a basis for a 
reciprocal trade with Canada. The settlement of these 
two important questions was transferred to Washington, 
and the negotiations resulted in the treaty signed by 



18 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OP 

Mr. Marcj as Secretary of State in behalf of the United 
States, and Lord Elgin, Governor-general of Canada, in 
behalf of Great Britain. 

But the successful termination of the negotiations at 
"Washington was fatal to the hopes of a satisfactory set- 
tlement of the Central American question, which of all 
was the most embarrassing and complicated. Previous- 
ly, Canada, uneasy and restive, had been urging the 
question of a reciprocity in trade with the United States 
upon the mother country, who feared the consequences 
of continuing the hateful restrictions which fettered the 
trade between her high-spirited colony and its annexa- 
tion-loving neighbor. Great Britain was right in her 
fears ; for a few years more of unsuccessful grumbling 
on the part of Canada would have resulted in a sever- 
ance of its colonial relations to that country, and its an- 
nexation to our confederacy. In the ratio of Great 
Britain's solicitude upon the subject, the United States 
were correspondingly indifferent ; and so long as this 
question was unsettled, the advantage we possessed 
could be used as a lever to force Great Britain from her 
warlike attitude on the Central American question. So, 
in a like manner, the Fishery question could be em- 
ployed to aid in the general settlement ; for, although 
we derived the chief advantage from the use of the 
fishing-grounds, and desired a settlement of the contro- 
versy, yet we had long been in possession, under forme? 
treaties, of the rights first disputed by the Derby-Disraeli 
ministry, and it required an affirmative and forcible, if 
not aggressive, act on the part of Great Britain to oust 
us, which would throw upon Great Britain the onus of a 
war resulting from a collision between our fishing ves- 
sels and the British fleet. 

In Central America, Great Britain was in possession 
of all she claimed and wanted : the Mosquito protec- 
torate, — Belize, with its rapidly extending boundaries, — • 
the colony of the Bay Islands including Euatan, which 



HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 19 

commanded the San Juan Eiver, — and there the aflBrma- 
tive rested with the United States to dislodge her. Tlie 
Central American question was consequently the most 
difficult for diplomacy to deal with — it presenting the 
most troublesome point in the whole range of negotia- 
tion, the surrender of territory under the construction of 
a treaty. So long as the Fishery and Keciprocity ques- 
tions were open, we held Great Britain at a disadvan- 
tage, and all these questions could have been settled 
without difficulty ; but to settle the two in which Eng- 
land had something to gain, and leave open the third, in 
which England had every thing to lose, and we every 
thing to gain, rendered nearly hopeless the prospect of a 
satisfactory adjustment of the disputed points which had 
arisen under the Clayton-Bulwer convention. Under 
these circumstances, all that was left for Mr. Buchanan 
to do was to put upon record the case for the United 
States ; and this duty he perforaaed in the course of a 
discussion with Lord Clarendon, in a manner that has 
commanded the very highest commendation of the states- 
men of all parties in this country ; and the British Min- 
istry, finally, unable to answer the arguments of Mr. 
Buchanan, abandoned the discussion, and contented 
itself with a sullen and obstinate assertion of its claims, 
and hinting at a mediation as the only mode of settle- 
ment left. 

The war between the allies and Eussia revived the 
agitation of the question of the rights of neutrals ; and 
in dealing with it, tlie highest abilities of Mr. Buchanan 
as a diplomatist and statesman were required. It is 
well known that a large portion of the carrying trade of 
the world, and especially of the belligerent powers, was 
performed during the war by American, ships. This 
fact is due to the persevering efforts of Mr. Buchanan to 
induce Great Britain and France to relinquish their old 
doctrine of seizing the goods of an enemy in ships of a 
neutral power, and to adopt instead the American doc- 



20 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF 

trine, that " free ships make free goods," which efforts 
were finally successful. Great Britain had long been 
the stoutest opponent of this doctrine, and her recogni- 
tion of it, resulting from Mr. Buchanan's negotiations, 
secured also the acquiescence of France, and, with the 
Western powers unanimous, Eussia did not hesitate to 
follow. This suctiessful termination of the negotiations 
secured to our countiy a vast and very profitable trade ; 
but, aside from this, it secured a higher result to civiliza- 
tion and to neutral powers — an amelioration of the bane- 
ful effects of war upon parties other than those immedi- 
ately engaged in the conflict. 

Another subject of great interest to neutrals was the 
" Law of Blockade," and to it Mr. Buchanan addressed 
himself with great assiduity. In former wars, England 
had contended for what we had always termed " paper 
blockades" — in other words, she would declare all ports 
of her enemies in a state of blockade whether she had 
a .sufficient force present to enforce the blockade or not, 
and then claim as a lawful prize any vessel taken whilst 
attempting to enter those ports. The United States had 
always insisted that the particular port or ports to be 
blockaded must be distinctly specified ; and further, 
that a sufficient force must be actually and continually 
present, cruising in the waters adjacent, to enforce the 
blockade. Mr. Buchanan succeeded in obtaining the 
practical recognition of this doctrine by Great Britain, 
and it was recognized and acted upon throughout the 
war, both in the Orders in Council and in the decisions 
of the British Prize Courts. Here was another impor- 
tant triumph to neutral rights, releasing our ships from 
the hazards and uncertainties of vague and invisible 
blockades ; and the consequence was, that our enter- 
prising marine could enter every port except those 
where a fleet was actually stationed to enforce a block- 
ade previously and publicly notified to the commercial 



HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 21 

world. This was the first instance in which England 
had made this concession to neutrals. 

The questions involved in the circular drawn up by 
Messrs. Buchanan, Mason, and Soule at Ostend, as that 
document, now that Mr. Buchanan is before the people 
as a candidate for the Chief Magistracy of the nation, is 
attempted to be construed into countenancing filibuster- 
ism, require to be noticed at greater length in a subse- 
quent portion of this volume. Suffice it here to say, 
that the doctrines of that circular need only be exam- 
ined in connection with contemporaneous facts and cir- 
cumstances, to prove them to be, beyond all cavil, entirely 
consistent with a sound foreign policy and national honor. 

During the trying time of Mr. Buchanan's mission, 
the whole nation seemed impressed with the responsibil- 
ities devolving upon him. But they felt that in Mr. 
Buchanan they had a man upon whose safe character 
and wise counsels they could confidently lean. Their 
eyes were constantly fixed upon him. Every steamer 
brought news occasioning the greatest anxiety to the 
commercial and other classes. On more than one occa- 
sion collision seemed to be inevitable ; but every panic 
passed ofi". The correspondence of Mr. Buchanan, such 
of it as has been published, exhibits on his part a vigi- 
lance, a discretion, an industry, and at the same time a 
dignity of character, that have made his name a favorite 
name in every section of our beloved Union. In leaving 
his post to give way to his successor, Mr. Buchanan had 
the proud consciousness of having established renewed 
kind relations between the two countries, and having 
fixed upon the hearts of the English people the impress 
of a republican character which had never for a single 
moment yielded its simplicity and its truth to aristocratic 
blandishments. The prominent place Mr. Buchanan had 
so long held in the councils of his own country — ^the 
high order of ability he had displayed in the negotiation 
of the Oregon '{uestion with England while Secretary oi 



22 LIFE AOSTD PUBLIC SERVICES OF 

State — his singularly pure and elevated private and pub- 
lic character, gave him a commanding position in Eng- 
lish society. It is not too much to say that, as no one of 
his colleagues in the diplomatic corps at the Court of St. 
James had ever at home held the same high position, 
so no one of them enjoyed any thing like an equal de- 
gree of consideration at the British Court or in British 
society. Always the welcome guest, his presence was 
sought at every great festive or social reunion. Invita- 
tions to festivities of a public character he very rarely 
accepted ; but whenever he did so, his appearance was 
always the signal for the most marked proofs of respect, 
which not unfrequently broke the limits of English re- 
serve, and reached the verge of enthusiasm. On several 
occasions, when apprehensions of a threatened collision be- 
tween the two countries alarmed the people of both, his 
presence among the populace of London was greeted 
with cheers ; an evidence that, however parties may in- 
trigue, an honest, straightforward patriot is sure to hold 
a high place in the affections of the masses. 

He was twice invited by the Chamber of Commerce 
of Liverpool to accept a public dinner in that city, but 
his duties in London interposed a barrier to the accept- 
ance of either invitation. He was several times the guest 
of the Lord Mayor of London, when the dignitaries of 
the British political, financial, and commercial circles 
were invited to meet him. England is the land of good 
dinners, and dining is one of their social institutions, 
which is brought to bear upon all the most eventful 
transactions of life. At these Mr. Buchanan was always 
the wished-for guest ; and, indeed, his exuberant spirits, 
his exhaustless stores of anecdote, his ready wit and 
unfailing hon hommie^ never failed to make him the lion 
of the evening. But, though Mr. Buchanan was courted 
and flattered during his stay, he studiously abstained 
from paying tribute to English vanity. In all circles, 
and on all occasions, he displayed his American dignity 



HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 23 

and his American patriotism. Never gratuitonslj ob- 
truding his country and her advantages, he never hesi- 
tated to speak of her as a son speaking of his parent ; 
nor was he ever actuated by any spirit of offensive par- 
tisanship. As he came, so he goes — the same plain, un- 
titled, unprefending American citizen. The highest 
classes vied with each other to do him honor. 

In connection with this, we may mention Mr. Buchan- 
an's consistent course in declining to conform to the aris- 
tocratic customs of the British Court in the matter of 
dress. Though this was a subject that involved no seri- 
ous complications between the two Governments, yet it 
was of sufficient importance to excite general attention 
and discussion in private circles and in the press, as well 
in Great Britain as in our own country. The Queen was 
strenuous in pressing a conformity, and at the outset in- 
sisted, through Lord Clarendon, Major-general Edward 
Cust, the Master of Ceremonies, and the Marquis of 
Broadalbin, the Lord Chamberlain, that Mr. Buchanan 
should appear on all occasions of the festivities of the 
Court in full court dress. The circular from the State 
Department which was forwarded to our ministers 
abroad, leaving it to their discretion whether to appear 
in court dress or not, the Queen pressed a conformity on 
the part of Mr, Buchanan with still greater tenacity, — 
only, however, as a mark of social respect to her. 
Mr. Buchanan, in answer, stated substantially, that 
though he could not compete in loyalty to her Majesty 
with her subjects, he yet could in social respect ; and if 
his failure to conform would be regarded as a mark of 
disrespect, however he might regret being debarred the 
pleasures of participating in the social festivities of the 
Court, he would absent himself on those occasions. IN'ot 
wishing, however, to make this the alternative, the 
Queen suggested the style of dress worn by Washington 
when President, and urged that for an American minis- 
ter to appear in the dress of Washington could not 



24 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF 

excite the rebuke of his countrymen at home. Mr. Bu- 
chanan urged that to do this would be to arrogate to 
himself that he was the peer of the Father of his 
Country ; and this his modesty, and a proper reserve, 
would not permit him to assume. 

The American Legation was always open to our coun- 
trymen. Its elegant hospitalities were graced by Mr, 
Buchanan's charming niece, Miss Lane, whose distin- 
guished manners, finely cultivated mind, and great per- 
sonal beauty, was a source of pride to all Americans 
who rejoice to see their country so nobly represented in a 
forei2:n land. 

When Mr. Buchanan accepted the mission to Great 
Britain, it was with the understanding with President 
Pierce and the Cabinet that he should be permitted to 
retire from the post at the end of two years, which 
term would have expired in June, 1855, and in the 
spring of that year he applied for his recall. He was 
m-ged, however, by the Cabinet, from time to time, to 
remain ; and in view of the enlistment question, which 
was likely to be of great importance in the affairs of the 
two countries, he consented to prolong his stay. He did 
not cease, however, to urge upon his Government his 
desire for the appointment of his successor, and he was 
only able to secure this at last by notifying the Cabinet 
that, unless they complied with his wishes by a given 
period, he should feel himself at liberty to return. Mr. 
Dallas, of Pemisylvania, was then tendered the mission, 
and Mr. Buchanan reached the city of New York on the 
23d of last April. On his return, he was welcomed by 
a delegation of the Common Council of j^ew York, was 
tendered the use of the Governor's Room, where he was 
received by the municipal authorities, and met con- 
gratulations of thousands of om- citizens, who were proud 
to do him honor. 

At Philadelphia, owing to a strong partisan feeling 
existing with the authorities against Mr. Buchanan, the 



HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 25 

use of Independence Hall to receive the distinguished 
son of Pennsylvania was refused ; but in Independence 
Square, however, the citizens of Philadelphia turned out 
en massG^ and gave him an enthusiastic welcome. The 
municipal authorities of Baltimore and Washington 
paid a graceful tribute to his many excellent qualities 
by the hearty and enthusiastic greeting with which they 
received him. But the greetings which were the most 
gratifying to Mr. Buchanan were those which met him 
on his journey from Philadelphia to Lancaster, when at 
every city, village, and even cross-road, large numbers 
were assembled, and as the train of cars passed they 
manifested their feelings by hearty cheers. At Lancaster, 
his fellow-citizens, of all parties, assembled in thousands, 
and on his arrival welcomed him to his cherished home. 

During his stay in London, Mr. Buchanan received 
letters by nearly every mail from distinguished leaders 
of the Democratic party, pressing upon him to reconsidei 
his frequently expressed determination to retire from pub- 
lic life at the close of his mission. In reply, he reaffirmed 
his determination, and ^discouraged every attempt to use 
his name in connection with the Presidency, until a 
Democratic Convention of his native State presented 
his name with a unanimity so unexampled, that he felt 
he could no longer urge objections to the wishes ex- 
pressed. 

In the early part of June last, delegates from the De- 
mocracy of the different States of the Union assembled 
at Cincinnati, Ohio, for the pur[30se of nominating a 
candidate of the party for the Chief Magistracy. Indi-' 
cations from the first were, that Mr. Buchanan would be 
the choice of the Convention. On the seventeenth bal- 
lot he received the unanimous vote of the Convention, 
and was declared the nominee of the party. 

Mr. Buchanan's letter of acceptance and the platform 
of the party adopted by the Convention will be f )und in 
the latter part of this volume. 



26 I.IFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF 

Tlie news of tlie nomination was Iialled in every pMi" 
of tlie Union with joy and enthusiasm, and ratification 
meetings in nearly every town, the largest ever assem- 
bled, promptly endorsed the action of the nominating 
convention ; and, as a just tribute to the talents and 
abilities of Mr. Buchaiian, qualifying him above all oth- 
ers in the present exigency to stand at the helm of the 
ship of State, it is very generally believed that he will 
be elected by a unanimity without a parallel ; whilst 
many gentlemen, whose political sagacity is beyond 
question, confidently predict that he will have the elec- 
toral vote of every State in the Union. 

Lancaster county, in which Mr. Buchanan has for 
many years resided, is one of the most populous and 
nourishing in the Union. It contains a population of 
about one hundred thousand, and forms of itself a Con- 
gressional district. During the past fifteen years, it has 
been a strong Whig county, and at the elections has al- 
ways given an immense majority against the Democratic 
party. In the memorable contests which secured the 
election of General Harrison, and -subsequently of Gen- 
eral Tajdor, to the Presidency, the Whig majorities 
ranged from four to six thousand. Eesiding in the 
midst of such a community, it is easy to perceive that 
Mr. Buchanan could not avoid strong party conflicts, 
and against such strong opposition forces he has often 
been necessarily compelled to lead his friends. But, not- 
withstanding this, such is the feeling produced in this 
old Whig county by the nomination of Mr. Buchanan at 
Cincinnati, that confident predictions are now made 
that he will not only obliterate the opposition majority 
in Lancaster county in I^ovember, but that the vote of 
the county in favor of the Democratic electorab ticket 
will be carried by a large majority. It is said that, in 
the township in which Mr. Buchanan resides, there is 
not a voter to be found who will record his suffrage 
against him ; and in the city of Lancaster, the most 



HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 27 

prominent — men heretofore well known as National 
Whigs — men of wealth and standing, lawyers at the bar, 
capitalists, and men of other professions, who, up to the 
present time, have been inimical to the great Democratic 
partj of the county, are now foremost in advocating Mr. 
Buchanan's claims. 

Mr. Buchanan, as is well known, has never married ; 
and this fact has been often mentioned by his political 
enemies, since his nomination, with a sting of sarcasm 
which, under any circumstances of the case, is, to say 
the least, in bad taste. But celibacy was not Mr. Bu- 
chanan's choice. An early attachment, and a disap- 
pointment attended with circumstances of a solemn na- 
ture, banished from Mr. Buchanan's mind, notwithstand- 
ing his proverbial gallantry, all thoughts of forming a 
matrimonial alliance. The facts in reference to this 
matter the writer of these pages does not feel himselt 
permitted to give. They belong exclusively to the par- 
ties who are directly interested in them, and no person 
familiar with them would desire to draw the veil from 
so sacred a mystery. 

The relations formed by Mr. Buchanan during his 
career in Congress have never been sundered. He 
was not only the acknowledged peer, but the warm 
friend of the most eminent men of his own party. 
In him we find a character without suspicion or 
stain. During forty years of active and almost con- 
stant service in high political positions, he has maintain- 
ed the same tranquil deportment, the same scrupulous 
regard for the ti'uth, the same dignified avoidance of 
corrupt compliances and combinations. The 230sterity 
of the friends among whom he spent his youth are living 
around him ; and the prophecies of those who saw the 
promise of his early years are recalled by the'r de- 
scendants, who rejoice in the maturity of his intellect, 
the sagacity of his statesmanship, and the long list oi his 
public and private vu-tues, as the abundant fulfilment of 



28 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF 

tlie predictions of their fathers. Personal malignity has 
never yet inflicted dishonor upon his good name. • Slan- 
der, exhanstless in its resources, and unsleeping in its 
vengeance, has failed in every attempt against him. 

Men contemplate Mr. Buchanan, at this day, not as 
one whom envy and wrong have persecuted, hut as a 
great public character, who has passed through the fiery 
furnace without the smell of smoke upon his garments, 
and who stands out ready to submit to the test of any 
scrutiny into his conduct as a citizen and a statesman. 
The day has come which is to prove that such talents as 
his, such experience, such integrity, such fixed habits of 
wise forecast, are essential to the great destiny for which 
he seems to have been reserved by his countrymen, who 
always demand the highest qualities of statesmanship 
in the highest position in their gift. Where, indeed, is 
there to be found a living public man who presents so 
exemplary and so consistent a record, running through 
so many years ? Even among those who have departed 
the scene of human action, there were few who could 
point to a more unbroken series of services in defence 
of great principles. If we look down the gallery of the 
long gone past, and take up the portraits of the great 
actors of other days, how comjDaratively few there are 
who exhibited in their lives and in their works a more 
conscientious and high-souled devotion to the doctrines 
of the Federal Constitution and to the rights of the 
States of the American Union ! The course of Mr. Bu- 
chanan has been neither erratic nor irregular ; it has 
harmonized with the purest examples of the past and 
the present, and with all those saving doctrines which 
he has devotedly practised and defended ; and whether 
in the House or in the Senate of the American Con- 
gress, whether immersed in foreign relations, whether 
at the head of the most important department of the 
Government under the memorable administration of Mr. 
Polk, or whether reposing in the calm seclusion of his 



nON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 29 

own home, his well-balanced intellect and his patriotic 
devotion to the Union, have always been displayed at 
the right moment, and with the most striking effect. 
Progressive, not in the spirit of lawlessness, but in har- 
mony with the steady advance of our institutions on this 
continent, and our example among the nations of the 
earth; conservative, not in veneration for antiquated 
abuses, but in sacred regard for rights which cannot be 
violated without destroying the fundamental law; he 
fails in no single element of public usefulness, political 
orthodoxy, or personal character. Such is the impres- 
sion made upon those v/ho study the history, public and 
private, of James Buchanan ; such the conclusive answer 
which the open and spotless volume of his career makes 
to all who have conceived it necessary to attack his emi- 
nent deservings and his lofty capacities. 



30 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAJ^. 



THE 

PUBLIC SERVICES OF MR. BUCHANAN. 



In the following j)ages of this concise work will be 
found an account of many of the leading public acts of 
Mr. Buchanan, which have been careftiUj collated by 
the author from the public records — a careful perusal of 
which will give the reader not only a true index of Mr. 
Buchanan's eminent qualities in the various public 
walks which he has adorned, but will indicate his views 
upon the great questions now before the people. 

We begin with his connection with the 

IMPEACHMENT OF JUDGE PECK. 

It was during the last session in which Mr. Buchanan 
was a member of the House of Representatives, that he 
appeared before the Senate of the United States on an 
impeachment preferred by the House of Representatives 
against Judge Peck, of Missouri, for high misdemeanors 
in office. This celebrated case for importance and thrill- 
ing interest has no parallel in the annals of Congress. 
It was introduced into the House of Representatives by 
a memorial, presented by Hon. John Scott, representa- 
tive of Missouri, in December, 1S26. The memorial 
was referred to the Judiciary Committee, of which Mr. 
Webster was then chairman. Here the matter rested 
without any action until the session of 1828. On the 
15th of December, 1829, upon a motion of Mr. McDuffie, 
of South Carolina, the memorial was once more referred 
to tlie Judiciary Committee, now composed of Messrs. 
Buchanan, Wickliffe, Storrs, Davis, of S. C, Boulden, 



IMPEACHMENT OF JUDGE PECK. 31 

Ellsworth, and White, of La. "These gentlemen" (in 
the language of the reporter) " took up the subject with 
earnestness, and on tlie 27th of January ensuing, the 
chairman, Mr. Buchanan, moved that they be authorized 
to send fur persons and papers. The motion was agreed 
to : witnesses were sent for and examined, and en the 
23d of March following, Mr. Buchanan, and Mr. Storrs, 
of New York, were appointed a committee to go to the 
bar of the Senate and inform that body what had been 
done, and, in the name of the House of Eepresentatives 
and the people of the United States, to impeach Judge 
Peck for high misdemeanors in office, and acquaint the 
Senate that the House will, in due time, exhibit particu- 
lar articles of impeachment against him, and make good 
the same. On the 4th of March following, the Senate 
resolved itself into a high court of impeachment. Mr. 
Buchanan acting as chairman of the managers appointed 
on the part of the House." The court then adjourned 
to May 11th, and afterwards to December 13th and 20th, 
when the trial proceeded. The complaint charged 
Judge Peck with oppression and tyranny in bringing 
before his conrt, in a summary and arbitrary manner, a 
member of the bar whom he accused of having com- 
mented, in the columns of a St. Louis journal, on one of 
his judicial opinions, which had also been published in a 
public journal — for which ofience he punished the accused, 
wdthout a trial or hearing, by suspending him from prac- 
tice in the court for eighteen months, and committing 
him to the common prison for twenty-four hours. For 
the purpose of showing the importance of the case under 
investigation, and the appreciation entertained by Mr. 
Buchanan of the value of the freedom of the press, we 
quote from the first and second paragraphs of this 
speech, as found in the published volume of the "Trial 
of Judge Peck," in the Congressional library, page 25 : 

"I concur," says Mr. Buchanan, "with the gentleman 



32 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

who last addressed you in behalf of the respondert (Mr. 
Wirt), that the fate of the Judiciary of the United States 
may, to a considerable extent, depend upon the event 
of this impeachment. I believe his position to be true, 
and it is that characteristic of this proceeding which has 
impressed me with the deep sense I feel of its great im- 
portance. If this high court of impeachment shall es- 
tablish the claim which has been asserted by the re- 
spondent in behalf of himself and all other judges, that 
they possess the power to proceed in a summary man- 
ner against the authors of all publications which they 
may fancy or believe to be derogatory to their judicial 
dignity — if they may deprive such authors of their con- 
stitutional right to a trial by jury, and subject them to 
fine and imprisonment at discretion, then, indeed, the 
Judiciary will be in danger. The people of this country 
love their Judiciary well, but they love the freedom of 
tlieir press still better ; and if these two great branches 
of our civil polity shall be placed in hostile array against 
each other by the decision of this Senate, God only 
knows what may be the consequences. It is this con- 
sideration which has given such solemn importance to 
the trial in which we are engaged." 

In the second paragraph of his speech Mr. Buchanan 
proceeds as follows : 

"In the letter which Judge Peck addressed to the 
House of Eepresentatives, in explanation of the charges 
which had been made against him by Mr. Lawless, he 
uses this strong language : — ^ The liberty of the press 
has always been the favorite watchword of those who 
live by its licentiousness — it has been from time imme- 
morial, is still and ever will be, the perpetual decanta- 
tum on the lips of all libellers !' My colleague thought 
that this remark was a sneer at the ' liberty of the 
press,' and for exj)ressing that conviction he has been 
severely reproved by the respondent's counsel. . . . 
Be that as it may, I will here observe, that if the ' liber- 
ty of the press has always been the watchword of those 
who live by its licentiousness,' the licentiousness of the 
press has always been the favorite watchword of those 



FINANCIAL POLICY OF GOVERNMENT. 33 

who are afraid of its liberty ! It lias been the ]~)i'etext 
used in every age, since the art of printing was known, 
by every tyrant who sought to demolish its freedom. 
Even Charles X. himself, when he passed those edicts 
against the press whose effect on the people hurled 
him from his throne, attempted to justify his atrocious 
conduct by abusing its licentiousness. The counsel who 
last addressed you" in behalf of the respondent, has pre- 
sented to us several figures of speech, for the purpose of 
illustrating the necessity of restraining this great instru- 
ment of our freedom. However happy and however 
eloquent these illustrations may have been, they might 
with equal truth and propriety have been applied 
(though that gentleman would have been the last to 
apply them) to the edict of Charles X. Figures of 
speech prove only the ingenuity or the eloquence of 
the orator who uses them. They are always dangerous 
in a grave discussion, when the guilt or innocence of an 
accused person is to be established. It would be easy 
for me, in answering the gentleman, to turn his figures 
against himself, and say : Better that the noble vine 
should shoot into rank luxuriance, than plant a canker 
in its root which would destroy the tree, or even commit 
it to the care of such a vine-dresser as the respondent, 
to lop away all its fruitful branches, and leave it a 
naked trunk." 

The speech of Mr. Buchanan on this occasion was 
the means of gaining him a high reputation, and it 
is still quoted as a masterly exposition of constitutional 
law. 

The result of the trial was the acquittal of Judge Peck 
by one vote. 



THE FINANCIAL POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 

'No statesman can point to a more consistent record 
upon the financial policy of the Government than Mr. 
Buchanan. And more than this, the uniform stand 
which he has always taken is now regarded by all par- 

2* 



34 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

ties to be in accordance with tlie dictates of the highest 
wisdom ; and none would seek, at this day, to establish 
any financial policy other than that which was estab- 
lished by the Democratic party after a long and fierce 
political struggle ; nor could any be found to resuscitate 
those measures which the Democratic party, after a 
longer and fiercer struggle, was enabled to consign to 
rest. In all the financial measures which have come up 
in Congress, and which have affected the interests of the 
country, Mr. Buchanan has been an active participant 
in the discussions which arose upon them ; and, with the 
Democratic party, he has opposed, in an able, dignified, 
and eloquent manner, all attempts to enlarge the powers 
of the Government by forced constructions of the Con- 
stitution. One financial measure after another, concoct- 
ed by the leaders of the Whig party, fell under the 
blows dealt them by the Democratic leaders, and the 
adverse current of a potent public opinion. Mr. Bu- 
chanan's speeches are referred to as among the ablest 
that w^ere delivered upon the great issues which divided 
the parties in the past. 

THE INDEPENDENT TKEASIJRY BILL. 

This measure was one of the most important ever pre- 
pared with the view of regulating the financial affairs of 
the country, and securing at all times a healthy and sound 
condition of our currency. On the 22d of January, 
1840, Mr. Buchanan delivered a speech in the Senate in 
favor of the bill, in reply to one by Mr. Clay, of Ken- 
tucky, against it. In that speech Mr. Buchanan discussed 
the measure in its practical bearing upon the manufac- 
turing interest and upon the currency. He summed up 
the leading objects of the independent treasury as fol- 
lows : 

" Our chief objects in adopting the independent trea- 



INDEPENDENT TIIEASURY BILL. 35 

snry, are to disconnect the government from all banks, 
to secure tlie people's money from the wreck of the 
banking system, and to have it always ready to promote 
the prosperity of the country in peace and defend it in 
war. Incidentally, however, it will do some good in 
cliecking the extravagant spirit of speculation, which is 
the bane of the country. 

'' In the first place, hj requiring specie in all receipts 
and expenditures of the government you will create an 
additional demand for gold and silver to the amount of 
five millions of dollars per annum, according to the es- 
timate of the President. A large portion of this sum 
will be drawn from the banks, and this will compel 
them to keep more specie in their vaults in j)roportion to 
their circulation and deposits, and to bank less. This, so 
far as it may go, will strike at the root of the existing 
evil. I fear, however, that it will prove to be but a very 
inadequate restraint upon excessive banking. 

" In the second place, this bill will, in some degree, 
diminish our imports, especially after June, 1842. I 
most heartily concur with the senator in desiring this re- 
sult. What is the condition of the importing business 
at the present moment ? It is almost exclusively in the 
hands of British agents, who sell all the manufactures 
they can dispose of in other portions of the world, and 
then bring the residuum here to glut our markets. Ac- 
cording to our existing laws, they receive a credit from 
the government to the amount of its duties. They sell 
the goods for cash ; and the credit becomes so much 
capital in their han(k to enable them to make fresh im- 
portations. The Independent Treasury Bill requires that 
all duties shall be paid in gold and silver; and after 
June, 1842, the Compromise Law will take away the 
credits altogether. We shall then have a system of cash 
duties in operation, which will contribute much to reduce 
tlie amount of our importations and to encourage domes- 
tic manufactures. 

" In the third place, this bill will make the banking in- 
terest the greatest economists in the country, so far as the 
Government is concerned. Their nerves of self-interest 
will be touched in favor of economy, and this will in- 
duce them to unite w^ith the people in reduciug the 



36 LIFE OF HO:^'. JAMES BUCHANAN". 

revenue and expenditures of the Government to tlie low- 
est standard consistently with the public good." 

Mr. Buchanan regarded the United States Bank as 
the antagonist proposition, and on that subject he spoke 
as follows : 

" The Senator ridiculed the idea that the establish- 
ment of a new Bank of the United States could prove 
dangerous to civil liberty. Such a bank, with a capital 
of from fifty to a hundred millions of dollars, with 
branches in every State of the Union, directing, by its 
expansions and contractions, when prices should rise 
and when they should fall, would be a most tremendous 
instrument of irresponsible power. It would be a ma- 
chine much more formidable than this Government, 
even if the Administration were as corrupt as the fancy 
of some gentlemen has painted it. There is a natural 
alliance between wealth and power. Mr. Kandolph 
once said, ' Male and female created he them." Com- 
bine the moneyed aristocracy, of the country, through 
the agency of a National Bank, with the Administra- 
tion, and their united power would create an influence 
which it would be almost impossible for the people to 
withstand. We should never again see these powers in 
hostile array against each other. In the days of Gen- 
eral Jackson, we witnessed the exception, and the rule. 
Give any President such a bank as I have described, 
and we shall hereafter have a most peaceful succession. 
"With all the power of the Executive, combined with all 
the wealth of the country, he would be the most arrant 
blockhead in the world, if he were not able to re-elect 
himself and to nominate his successor. All the forms 
of the Constitution might still remain. The people 
might still be deluded with the idea that they elected 
their President ; but the; animating spirit of our free in- 
stitutions would be gone forever. A secret, but all-per- 
vading moneyed inliuence would sap the foundations 
of liberty, and render it an empty name. 

'' The immense power of such an institution was mani- 
fested in the tremendous efforts which it made against 
General Jackson. Had he not enjoyed more personal 



INDEPENDENT TREASURY BILL. 3Y 

popularity in tins country than any man who ever lived, 
these efforts would have proved irresistible. As it was, 
the conjflict was of the most portentous character, and 
shook the Union to its centre. , Indeed, the Bank, at one 
time, would, in all human probability, have gained the 
victory, had the election of President chanced to occur 
at that period ; and we should then have witnessed the 
appallino; spectacle of the triumph of the Bank over the 
rights and liberties of the people. The Constitution of 
the country and the Democratic party would then have 
been prostrated together." 

In the memorable Presidential canvass of 1840, one 
of the charges against the Democratic party, by which 
the people were induced to support the Whig nomina- 
tions, was the allegation that, in advocating the Inde- 
pendent Treasury system, the Democrats favored the re- 
duction of the wages of the laboring man to " ten cents 
a day." This succeeded, for the time being, in effecting 
the overthrow of the Democracy. "Within less than a 
year after that result, there was a reaction in the popular 
feeling, and there is now not to be found on the statute- 
books one measure of general interest which was enacted 
by the Congress which was elected during^ the same 
temporary delusion in the popular mind which caused 
the defeat of the Democratic candidate for the Presi- 
dency. Experience has so fully vindicated the wisdom 
of the Independent Treasury system, that it has become 
the settled policy of the Government, and no man of 
any party at this day proposes to disturb it. It was on 
a misrepresentation of this speech of Mr. Buchanan in 
support of the Independent Treasury law that the charge 
as to the reduction of wages was made ; and now that 
he is the Democratic candidate for the Presidency, the 
charge is revived. 

In regard to the influence of prices as resulting from 
an inflated paper currency on ^ the manufacturing inter- 
est, Mr. Buchanan made these remarks in his speech : 



88 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

" Sir, I solemnly believe that if we could but reduce 
this inflated paper bubble to any thing like reasonable 
dimensions, 'New England would become the most pros- 
perous manufacturing country that the sun ever shone 
upon. Why cannot we manufacture goods, and espe- 
cially cotton goods, which will go into successful com- 
petition with British manufactures in foreign markets ? 
Have we not the necessary capital ? Have we not the 
industry ? Have we not the machinery ? And, above 
all, are not our skill, energy, and enterprise proverbial 
throughout the world ? Land is also cheaper here than 
in any other country on the face of the earth. We 
possess every advantage which Providence can bestow 
upon us for the manufacture of cotton ; but they are all 
counteracted by the folly of man. The raw material 
costs us less than it does the English, because this is an 
article the price of which depends upon foreign markets, 
and is not regulated by our own inflated currency. 
We, therefore, save the freight of the cotton across the 
Atlantic, and that of the manufactured article on its re- 
turn here. What is the reason that, with all these ad- 
vantages, and with the protective duties which our laws 
afford to the domestic manufacturer of cotton, we can- 
not obtain exclusive possession of the home market, and 
successfully contend for the markets of the world ? It is 
simply because we manufacture at the nominal prices of 
our own inflated currency, and are compelled to sell at 
the real prices of other nations. Reduce our nominal to 
the real standard of prices throughout the worl ^ \d 
you cover our country with blessings and benefits. I 
wish to Heaven I could sj)eak in a voice loud enough to 
be heard throughout JSTew England ; because, if the at- 
tention of the manufacturers could once be directed to 
the subject, their own intelligence and native sagacity 
would teach them how injuriously they are afi:ected by 
our bloated banking and credit system, and would en- 
able them to apply the proper corrective." 

In answer to Mr. Clay's allegation, that the object of 
the friends of the Independent Treasury was to establish 
an exclusive metallic currency, Mr. Buchanan stated the 
following to be his position : 



INDEPENDENT TREASURY BILL. 39 

" But the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Clay) leaves no 
stone nnturned. He says that the friends of the Inde- 
pendent Treasmy desire to establish an exclusive metallic 
currency as the medium of all* dealings throughout the 
Union, and, also, to reduce the wages of the poor man]s 
labor so that the rich employer may be able to sell his 
manufactures at a lower price. ISTow, sir, I deny the 
correctness of both these propositions ; and, in tlie first 
place, I, for one, am not in favor of establishing an ex- 
clusive metallic currency for the people of this country. 
I desire to see the banks greatly reduced in nnmber, and 
would, if I could, confine their accommodations to such 
loans or discounts, for limited periods, to the commercial, 
manufacturing, and trading classes of the community as 
the ordinary course of their business might render neces- 
sary. I never wish to see farmers and mechanics and 
professional men tempted, by the facility of obtaining 
bank loans for long periods, to abandon their own proper 
and useful and respectable spheres, and rush into wild 
and extravagant speculation. I would, if I could, radi- 
cally reform the present banking system, so as to confine' 
it within such limits as to prevent future suspensions of 
specie payments ; and, without exception, I would in- 
stantly deprive each and every bank of its charter which 
should again suspend. Establish these or similar reforms 
and give ns a real specie basis for onr paper circulation, 
by increasing the denomination of bank notes, first to 
ten, and afterwards to twenty dollars, and I shall then 
be the friend, not the enemy, of banks. I know that the 
existence of banks and the circulation of bank paper are 
so identified wirh the habits of our people that they can- 
not be abolished, even if this were desirable. To reform, 
and not to destroy, is my motto. To confine them to 
their appropriate business, and prevent them from min- 
istering to the spirit of wild and reckless speculation by 
extravagant loans and issues, is all which ought to be 
desired. But this I shall say : If experience should prove 
it to be impossible to enjoy the facilities which well- 
regulated banks would aftbrd, without, at the same time,^ 
continuing to sufier the evils which the wild excesses of 
the present banks have hitherto entailed upon the coun- 
try, then I should consider it the lesser evil to abolish 



40 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

them altogether. If tlie State Legislatures shall now do 
their duty, I do not believe that it will ever become ne- 
cessary to decide on such an alternative." 

MR. BUCHANAN ON THE EIGHTS OF LABORING MEN. 

Mr. Clay had charged that the friends of the Independ- 
ent Treasury desired to reduce the wages of laboring 
men. As this is the char2:e which it is now souo^ht to 
revive, w^e invite special attention to Mr. Buchanan's re- 
ply. It was as follows .: 

" We are also charged by the Senator from Kentucky 
with a desire to reduce the wages of the poor man's 
labor. We have been often termed agrarians on our 
side of the house. It is something new under the sun to 
hear the senator and his friends attribute to us a desire 
to elevate the wealthy manufacturer at the expense of 
the laboring man and the mechanic. From my soul I 
respect the laboring man. Labor is the foundation of 
the wealth of every country ; and the free laborers of 
the J^orth deserve respect both for their probity and 
their intelligence. Heaven forbid that I should do them 
wrong ! Of all the countries on the earth, we ought to 
have the most consideration for the laboring man. From 
the very nature of our institutions, the wheel of fortune 
is constantly revolving and producing such mutations 
that the wealthy man of to-day may become the poor 
laborer of to-morrow. Truly wealth often takes to itself 
wings and flies away. A large fortune rarely lasts be- 
yond the third generation, even if it endure so long. 
We must all know instances of individuals obliged to 
labor for their daily bread whose grandfathers were men 
of fortune. The regular process of society would almost 
seem to consist of the eftbrts of one class to dissipate the 
fortunes which they have inherited, whilst another class, 
by their industry and economy, are regularly rising to 
wealth. We have all, therefore, a common interest, as 
it is our common duty, to protect the rights of the labor- 
ing man ; and if I believed for a moment that this bill 
would prove injurious to him, it should meet my unqual- 
itied opposition. 



RIGHTS OF LABORING MEN. 41 

" Although this bill will not have as great an inflnence 
a>^ I conld desire, yet, as far as it goes, it will benefit the 
hiboring man as much, and probably more, than any 
otlier cUhss of society. What is it he ought most to de- 
sire? Constant employment, regular wages, and uni- 
form, reasonable prices for the necessaries and comforts 
of life which he requires. Now, sir, what has been his 
condition under our system of expansions and contrac- 
tions ? He has suffered more by them than any other 
class of society. The rate of liis wages is fixed and 
known ; and they are the last to rise wi'th the increasing 
expansion, and the first to fall when the corresponding 
revulsion occurs. He still continues to receive his dol- 
lar per day, whilst the price of every article which he 
consumes is rapidly rising. He is at length made to feel 
that, although he nominally earns as much or even more 
than he did formerly, yet, irom the increased price of all 
the necessaries of life, he. cannot support his family. 
Hence the strikes for higher wages, and the uneasy and 
excited feelings which have at difterent periods existed 
among the laboring classes. But the expansion at length 
reaches the exploding point, and what does the laboring 
man now suffer ? He is for a season thrown out of em- 
ployment altogether. Our manufactures are suspended ; 
our public works are stopped ; our private enterprises 
of different kinds are abandoned ; and, whilst others are 
able to weather the storm, he can scarcely procure the 
means of bare subsistence." 

The reader will be surprised when we state that what- 
ever of foundation there is for the " ten cent " charge, is 
embraced in the extracts w^hich we have made from Mr. 
Buchanan's speech. Throughout the whole of it there 
is no sentence or word W'hich gives even plausibility to 
the charge. From beginning to end the speech abounds 
in sound, statesmanlike sentiments, which have been 
fully illustrated by the experience of the last sixteen 
years. Oui chief pm'pose in making such liberal quo- 
tations is to vindicate the wisdom and firmness and 
patriotism of Mr. Buchanan. We desired to show how 



42 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

nobly he sustained General Jackson in liis struggle with 
the United States Bank — how faithfully and ably he 
maintained the Democratic position on the Independent 
Treasury system — how clearly he comprehended, and 
how forcibly he presented the merits of that system — 
and how clearly and earnestly he advocated the interests 
of the laboring man. It is, indeed, strange that the 
charo^e of a wish to reduce the washes of laborino^ men 
should be based on any thing in this speech. But it 
must be recollected, that it was during the remarkable 
canvas of 1840 that this charge obtained currency. In 
the then condition of the popular mind, nothing w^as so 
absurd or preposterous as not to be acceptable to the 
depraved tastes of the times. This remark is fully illus- 
trated by the manner in which Mr. Buchanan's speech 
was perverted, and a charge deduced from it which w^as 
in direct contradiction of the speech itself. 

Amongst others who undertook to answer Mr. Bu- 
chanan's speech, was the Hon. John Davis, of Massa- 
chusetts — ^lie th^t was usually known as " honest John 
Davis." He assumed in his argument, directly in the 
teeth of the fact, that Mr. Buchanan had advocated the 
Independent Treasury on the ground that it would estab- 
lish an exclusive metallic currency. Starting with this 
erroneous assumption, he argued to show that it would 
bring down the wages of labor to the standard of prices 
in countries where the currency is exclusively metallic. 
To this speech, when |)ublished, there was an appendix, 
in which he introduced a table showing that in some of 
the exclusive metallic countries of Europe laborers only 
received ten cents a day. Putting the speech and the 
appendix together, the hint was taken, and a clamor 
raised that the Democrats were in favor of reducing the 
wao-es of labor to ten cents a dav. 

In a subsequent speech, made on the 3d of March, 
1810, Mr. Buchanan denounced the charge against him 
in the strongest language, saying : 



RIGHTS OF LABORING MEN. 43 

" Self respect, as well as the respect which I owe to 
the Senate, restrains nie from giving such a contradic- 
tion to this allegation as it deserves. It would surely 
not be deemed improper, however, in me, if I were to 
turn to the senator and apply the epithet which he him- 
self has applied to the proposition he imputes to me, and 
were to declare that such an imputation was a 'flagi- 
tious' misrepresentation of my remarks." 

Mr. Buchanan repeated his real position as laid down 
in his original speech, as follows : 

" In my remarks I stated distinctly what legislation 
would, I thought, be required to accomplish this pur- 
pose. In the lirst place, I observed that the banks 
ouglit to be compelled to keep in their vaults a certain 
fair proportion of specie compared with their circulation 
and deposits ; or, in other words, a certain proportion of 
immediate specie mea-*s, to meet their immediate re- 
sponsibilities. 2d. Th' u the foundation of a specie basis 
for our paper currency should be laid by prohibiting the 
circulation of bank notes, at the first under the denomi- 
nation of ten, and afterwards under that of. twenty dol- 
lars. 3d. That the amount of bank dividends should be 
limited. 4th. And, above all, that, upon the occurrence 
of another suspension, the doors of the banks should be 
closed at once, and their aifairs placed in the hands ol 
commissioners. A certainty that such must be the inev- 
itable effect of another suspension, would do more to 
prevent it than any other cause. To reform, and not to 
destroy, was my avowed motto. I know that the exist- 
ence -of banks and the circulation of bank paper are so 
identified with the habits of our people that they cannot 
be abolished, even if this were desirable. 

" Such a reform in the banking system as I have indi- 
cated would benefit every class of society ; but, above 
all others, the man who makes his living by the sweat of 
his brow. The object at which I aimed by these reforms 
was not a pure metallic currency, but a currency of a 
mixed character; the paper portion of it always converti- 
ble into gold and silver, and subject to as little fiuctua- 
don in amount as the regular business of the country 



44 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

would adjiiit. Of all reforms, tliis is what the mechatiic 
aiKl the laboring man ought most to desire. It woiild 
produce steady prices and steady employment, and, 
under its influence, the country would march steadily on 
in its career of prosperity without suffering from the 
ruinous expansions and contractions and explosions which 
we have endured during the last twenty years. "What is 
most essential to the prosperity of the mechanic and 
laboring man ? Constant employment, steady and fair 
wages, with uniform prices for the necessaries and com- 
forts of life which he must purchase, and payment for 
his labor in a sound currency." 

After re-stating further his arguments as presented in 
his speech of January 22, Mr. Buchanan said, in refer- 
ence to tlie reduction of the wages of the laboring man : 

" I contended that it would not injure, but greatly ben- 
efit the laboring man, to prevent the violent and ruinous 
expansions and contractions to which our currency was 
incident, and by judicious bank reform to place it on a 
settled basis. If this we're done, what would be the con- 
sequence ? That, if the laboring man could not receive 
as great a nominal amount for his labor as he did ' in the 
days of extravagant expansion,' which must always un- 
der our present system be of short duration, he would 
be indemnified, and far more than indemnified, by the 
constant employment, the regular wages, and the uniform 
and more moderate prices of the necessaries and com- 
forts of life, which a more stable currency would pro- 
duce. Can this proposition be controverted ? I think 
not. It is too plain for argument. Mark me, sir, I de- 
sire to produce this happy result, not by establishing a 
pure metallic currency, but ' by reducing the amount of 
your bank issues within reasonable and safe limits, and 
establishing a metallic basis for your paper circula- 
tion.' The idea plainly expressed is, that it is much 
better for the laboring man, as well as for every other 
class of society except the speculator, that the busi- 
ness of the country should be placed on that fixed and 
permanent foundation which would be laid by establish- 
mo: such a bank reform as would render it certain that 



THE nUNDRED DAYS' SESSION. 45 

bank-notes should always be convertible into gold and 
silver." 

Since the delivery of this speech the Independent 
Treasury Bill has been in practical operation for ten 
years, and worked so admirably that no party at this 
day, and no considerable body of men anywhere object 
to its provisions, or profess a desire to repeal or change 
it. It has saved thousands of business men from ruin, 
and protected hundreds of thousands of laboring men 
from the effects of revulsions, which w^ouM otherw^ise 
have thrown them out of employment. Mr. Buchanan 
could have given no better evidence of the possession of 
great political sagacity, than his earnest advocacy of this 
great measure at that early day. The soundness of his 
views and the w^isdom of his conclusions have been 
clearly proven by the unerring tests of time and experi- 
ence ; and the deeper all that appertains to his course 
upon this question is agitated by the opposition, and 
investigated by the people, the more popular will he be- 
come, and the more thoroughly will he be applauded by 
all right thinking men. 



The extra session of Congress which was .convened 
in 1841 by a proclamation of President Harrison, w^as 
one of the most memorable in the history of our 'Na- 
tional Legislature. The measures which came up then 
for consideration w^ere of vital interest to . the whole 
country, and formed the issues which divided the politi- 
cal parties of the country. In both Houses of Congress 
the Whig party w^ere in a majority. The Senate-cham- 
ber had never presented on its floor such an aggregation 
of intellectual strength and all the qualities which go to 
make up the qualities of statesmanship, as it then pre- 
sented. Mr. Clay, as the head of the Whig party, tow- 
ered in all his glory and might, whilst others of ac- 



46 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN". 

knowledged greatness of his own party co-operated with 
him in all his movements. The Democratic party was 
represented by the first men in its ranks, and the Senate- 
chamber was indeed a theatre in which gigantic minds 
played the parts. Every movement on either side was 
preconcerted, and every act and argnnient of their op- 
ponents, so far as could be, was anticipated. The 
Democratic members met every evening for consul- 
tation, to compare views and to decide their course 
in the coming day, that they might be the better 
prepared to meet their antagonists in the intellectual 
arena. Mr. Calhoun then not only co-operated with the 
Democratic party, but nightly met with the other Sena- 
tors in their caucuses. Mr. Calhoun, Silas Wright, Mr. 
Benton, Mr. Linn, Mr. King, Mr. Woodbury, and Mr. 
Allen, were the daily companions of Mr. Buchanan, 
and labored with him to uphold the principles of the 
Democracy. To Mr. Buchanan was often assigned the 
duty of leading in debate during the pendency of many 
important questions ; and nowhere in the archives of oui 
country can be found a series of debates showing at the 
same time such masterly skill and intellectual power as 
can be seen in the debates of the extra session of 1841 — 
the memorable "hundred days." 

ATTEMPT TO REPEAL THE INDEPENDENT TREASURY BILL. 

The bill to repeal the Independent Treasury being un- 
der consideration, Mr. Buchanan said : 

That " in his opinion human ingenuity could not de- 
vise a wiser or a better plan than the Independent 
Treasury, for collecting, safe keeping, transferring, and 
disbursing the public revenue. In order to make it per- 
fect, there were but a very few amendments required. 
In regard to the specie clause — as it had been called — 
he believed that, in its practical operation, it would ex- 
ercise a most salutary influence on the banks and the 



NATIONAL BANK. 4? 

business of the country. But the decree had gone 
forth, and the Independent Treasury was destined to de- 
struction. - He had been instructed by the Legishiture of 
Pennsylvania to vote for its repeal; and he had anxious- 
ly considered what was the proper course for him to pur- 
sue. The only alternatives with him were obedience or 
resignation. This principle he had often avowed. If 
"■'^y resigning his seat in the Senate, and retiring from 
public life forever, he could preserve the Independent 
Treasury in existence, and prevent the establishment of 
another Bank of the United States, he would make the 
sacrifice with more pleasure than he had ever discharged 
any other public duty. Such a sacrifice would, indeed, 
be trifling, when compared with the public benefits 
which it would purchase. But nothing could now pre- 
vent the repeal of the Independent Treasury. With or - 
without his vote, it would be carried by a large majority. 
Under these circumstances, he had determined to obey 
the insti'uctions, as he had done once before on a similar 
occasion, and not resign his seat in the Senate. On-e 
powerful reason why he should thus act, arose from the 
fact that the Legislature had not ventured to instruct 
him to vote for a National Bank. They well knew he 
never would have obeyed such instruction. He was 
still free to exert all his feeble abilities against the es- 
tablishment of a Is'ational Bank, which he believed to 
be unconstitutional, and eminently dangerous to the pu- 
rity of our Republican institutions." 



NATIONAL BA^K. 

The bill incorporating subscribers to the fiscal Bank 
of the United States being under discussion, Mr. Bu- 
chanan took the floor in opposition to the bill, and ex- 
amined and commented at much length on the proposi- 
tions contained in the report of the Select Committee on 
the Currency. He denied that it was true, as the report 
asserted, that a verdict of the people of this country had 
been rendered in 'favor of the establishment of a national 
bank. He also denied, in opposition to the committee. 



48 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAS". 

that the question was constitiitionallj settled. He con- 
sidered that idea preposterous. ISTo judicial opinion 
could restrain members of Congress from acting on their 
own opinions of the constitutionality, when the subject 
was presented to them for their consideration. 

The chairman of the committee (Mr. Clay) had intima- 
ted that he would have preferred another location for the 
parent bank, to the city of Washington, but he supposed 
he had yielded this preference for the sake of unanimity, 
^Now, in his opinion, this was a vital point. If this bank 
was intended to encourage the commerce, the manufac- 
tures, and the agriculture, of the country, this is the 
worst place that could be selected ; for there is neither 
commerce, nor manufactures, nor agriculture here ; but if 
the object is to make a great government bank, and to 
encourage trading politicians, here is the very spot for 
that purpose ; and the money power and the political 
power he had no doubt would work together most har- 
moniously. 

He then went on to show that the proposed institution 
would be " a Government Bank in every essential par- 
ticular„ The Government would contribute the greater 
portion of the stock ; it would control the Bank direct- 
ors ; it would be the greatest depositor ; and the profits 
over a certain amount were to be paid into the Treasury, 
. . . . We had witnessed in our day, in the opposi- 
tion of General Jackson to the Bank, an exception to a 
general rule, which wq would never have the opportuni- 
ty of witnessing again. The money power might here- 
after act the Warwick in making kings, but would not 
attempt to pull them down. Even the power of the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury to examine the accounts of the 
Bank is only another means of Executive influence, in- 
stead of furnishing any security to the public or to the 
stockholders. With the immense power of this institu- 
tion over the business and prosperity of the country, 
and its close connection with and subservience to Execu- 
tive influence, hereafter, when a panic is necessary, there 
will be no difficulty in creating one. If, previous to in 



NATIONAL BA2sK. 41 

election, it is wanted to convince tlie people of thii 
country that they are the most miserable and ill-ti'catec 
on the face of the earth, it will be only necessary to giv( 
the screw two or three turns, and it will be accomplish 
ed. On the contrary, if it is wanted to make them be 
lieve that the Government is wisely and beneficently ad 
ministered, a flood of paper money will be let loose ovei 
the land, and the cry will go np from the Capitol, Wliai 
a wise Government, which showers such blessings upox 
the people !" 

Mr. Buchanan declared that " the Government, whicl 
was to subscribe, according to the provisions of the bill 
ten millions of dollars, would soon come to own mon 
than half the stock, and the result would be to run th( 
country into debt more than sixteen millions of dollars.' 
The stock of this Bank, he contended, might be taken 
not by capitalists, but by needy adventurers, who wan tec 
to borrow, not to lend ; who want to finger the capita 
contributed by Government. 

Mr. B. then examined the advantages which it wai 
said were to result from the establishment of this institu 
tion. A sound currency. If it was meant that it woulc 
furnish a paper medium, which the m.an in Georgia 
might carry to Maine, he admitted it ; but if the Gov 
ernment would make pieces of pasteboard receivable foi 
public dues, instead of the notes of this Bank, thej 
would form just as sound a currency. To regulate th( 
exchanges. Exchanges need no regulation except the 
resumption of specie payment by the banks. . : . 
The only way to perpetuate specie payments is to com 
pel the banks to keep themselves always in a sound con 
dition, by having at least one-third the amount of tv )i] 
circulation and deposits in specie in their vaults. This 
with a provision in their charters that when they sus 
pended their charters should be forfeited, he though' 
might accomplish it. A bankrupt law applied to bank.- 
would, in his opinion, more effectually aid in restoring f 
sound currency than if there was a Baiik of the Unitec 
States established in every fifty miles square of ouj 
territory. Instead of aiding a return to specie pay 
ments, there was great reason to fear that the establish 
ment of this Bank would produce precisely the contrary 

3 



50 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

result. The seven millions with wliicli it is to com- 
mence operations, if subscribed for, mnst come from the 
specie-pa.ying banks of the country : the suspended 
banks will hold on to that they have got ; and the dan- 
ger is, that it will make the suspension universal. 

He then referred to the power attributed to it of regu- 
lating the State banks, and said that it could not if it 
would, and would not if it could, regulate them. That 
the principles and interests of all banks were identical, 
and they would pursue the same course. The Bank of 
England in 1836, with seventy millions of capital, at- 
tempted to regulate the joint stock banks of that coun- 
try ; but as she contracted, they, expanded ; until, at the 
termination of her fruitless efforts, there was more pa- 
per in circulation than when she commenced ; and so 
entirely convinced is the public mind there of the utter 
inefhciency of any such attempt, that it is now turned to 
a plan by which all the paper issues are to be made by 
one institution, and that to be under the control of the 
Government. During the existence of the late Bank, it 
had led the wa}^ in the ruinous contractions and expan- 
sions of. the currency. In 1816, '17, and '18, the 
amount of paper money in circulation was so great, 
that the i^rice of every thing rose to an extravagant 
pitch, and in his own county of Lancaster, land was sold 
at fifteen hundred dollars per acre, which was not in- 
trinsically worth more than eighty dollars per acre. 
The Bank was on the brink of ruin. Mr. Cheves was 
brought in, and he endeavored to reduce its business to a 
healthful limit. Then came the pressure and panic of 
1819, '20, and '21, when prices fell as far below their 
real standard as they were formerly .above it. Flour 
sold in Philadelphia at three dollars a barrel ; in Pitts- 
burg at one dollar ; and in Ohio it could hardly be 
given away. Similar results, he had no doubt, would 
follow the establishment of this institution. 

He referred to the provision prohibiting the Bank in 
the city of Washington from discounting, as intended to 
produce the impression that no *loans were to be made 
to membei'S of Congress, or persons connected with the 
Government. If this was the object, why not say in ex- 
press terms, that no loans should be made to member 



BOARD OF EXCHEQUER. 51 

of Congress, or persons ofiicially connected ^itli the 
Government ? This would look like being in earnest ; | 
whereas, by the present arrangement, all a member has j 
to do is to procure a line from any of the Board of Man- 
agers to the branch in Baltimore, which he can reach in 
two hom-s, and the thing is accomplished. He referred 
to the suspended debt of the recent Bank, and said, if 
the items of it were ever given to the public, it would 
be found that a large amount of it was owing entirely 
by politicians in and out of Congress. He had infor- 
niation himself on this subject, which he should not at 
present divulge, because he might, perhaps, not be able 
to establish it by proof ; but the official report of John 
Tyler was ample in its revelations on that subject. 

The report of the Select Committee had given as an- 
other reason for the establishment of this Bank, that 
other cmmtries have national banks. Other countries 
have also kings and emperors, titles of nobility, and an 
established church ; and though he would not attribute 
the intention to the honorable chairman of the commit- 
tee, the same results will be attained in this country by 
the establishment of his favorite institution. We would 
have, not an hereditary aristocracy, but an odious mon- 
eyed aristocracy; and we would have the corpse of a 
Eepublican Government, while its spirit would have de- 
parted forever. 

FEDERAL BOARD OF EXCHEQUER. 

When the subject of a plan for a Federal Board of 
Exchequer came up in 1841, Mr. Buchanan made a 
powerful and effective speech against it, from which we 
make the subjoined extracts, as indicating his views 
upon the general subject of using the government mon- 
eys for banking purposes — both as regards the policy of 
such a course, and the right to pursue it under the Con- 
stitution. 

Mr. Buchanan said, that he " discovered in that meas- 
ure nothing else but a colossal form of a Government 
Bank. Its business was to be conducted exclusively by 



52 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

the Government ; its capital was to be furnislied exclu- 
sively by the Grovernment ; its jDaper was to be issued 
exclusive]y by the Government ; and from first to last, it 
was nothing but a Government Bank. He saw by what 
it professed to do, that it was an exchange bank, only 
withdrawn altogether from the control of private indi- 
viduals, and transferred to the Treasury. In making his 
objections to it, Mr. Buchanan said that the Whig party 
of this country had ever professed to regard the curtail- 
ing of Executive influence as the great polar star of all 
their political movements. Every distinguished Whig 
Senator had deprecated this influence, as one of the 
greatest of all evils. The very distinguished Senator 
from Kentucky (Mr. Clay) had this morning repeated 
on this subject, sentiments which he had heretofore pre- 
sented over and over again in that chamber, and the 
poor Independent Treasury Bill of Mr. Buchanan's party 
had been assailed with the utmost eflect on that very 
ground. The country had been alarmed at the vast and 
extensive patronage to which it would give occasion. 
He thought the idea of the appointment of four receiv- ' 
ers-general had struck terror and alarm through the 
hearts of all his Whi^ friends. But what have we here ? 
There were three commissioners besides the Secretary 
of the Treasury and Treasurer to be appointed and re- 
side at Washington, with fifty -two subordinate agencies 
all over the country, each requiring the additional ap- 
pointment of three ofi:cers, to say nothing of subordi- 
nates. There was a corps of ofiicers of at least two hun- 
dred individuals, great and small, presenting two hun- 
dred places very convenient indeed for the friends of 
any administration who might desire to secure and re- 
ward their services How could it possibly 

be supposed that any honorable Senator belonging to the 
party with which it was Mr. Buchanan's happiness to 
act, could ever adopt a plan of this description. That 
party had always been strenuously opposed to any Bank 
of the United States, and especially to the two fiscalities 
which had been vetoed by President Tyler ; and why ? 
Without adverting to the constitutional objection, chiefly 
because the United States were to be large stockholders, 
because the President was to appoint a portion of the 



BOARD OF EXCHEQUER. 63 

directors, and because these directors were to reside at 
Washington, under the immediate influence of the Ex- 
ecutive. They had always condemned the connection 
of a great money power with the political power..of the 
Government. But here in this bill all masks were 
thrown off. Here was a Government Bank, not owned 
in part by the General Government, but belonging alto- 
gether to that Government, and having all its oflScers 
appointed by Executive authority. And yet they were 
told, forsooth, that this was an immediate measure. So 
far from that, with the single excei3tion of the facility 
of repeal, it was an extreme measure. It went far be- 
yond the National Bank which his party had always 
opposed Instead of Treasury drafts pay- 
able within the shortest period, here was a regular issue 
of paper bills, at the rate of three for every one dollar 
in specie, with as complete a system of exchange as 
would have resulted from the adoption of the Exchange 
Bank Bill, so properly vetoed at the extra session. 
What would the President become according to this 
plan ? He w^as already the great fountain of political 
patronage, and he was to become the head of an im- 
mense moneyed institution. If this bill should succeed, 
the speculators and politicians of the whole country 
would be coming here to court the President or his Sec- 
retary for loans, just as eagerly as men now crowded 
around Washington for offices. Suppose an Aaron Burr 
were in the chair, having it in his power to control the 
whole of tlie public revenue. Let him have at his dis- 
posal all the money of the people with v/hich to pur- 
chase the services of political partisans on the eve of a 
great presidential election, and what would become of 
national liberty ? All they had heard about the union 
of the purse and the sword was merely idle declama- 
tion ; but here was that union in reality, and Avithout a 
veil. All the money of the people was to be subjected 
to the Executive disposal, and the President was to be- 
come at once the fountain of individual wealth, as well 
as of political power. The Treasury Bank was to be 
exclusively under the control of the Government, and an 
able, who should at the same time be a bad man, would 
be in circumstances, by the use of this double power, 



54 LIFE OF HON". JAMES BUCHANAN. 

both poJi'tical and fiscal, to spread unbounded corrup- 
tion throughout tJie community, and subsidize the venal 
to the purposes of his ambition ; and to so impair and cor- 
rupt the liberties of his country, that they would no longer 

be worth preserving They of Mr. B.'s party 

had long been making war on the principle of allowing 
the money of the people to be used for any purpose but 
paying the public debts. It was this which had ruined 
the deposit banks ; yet that very thing which had ruined 
them, this Government w^as asked now to do, and yet to 
expect not to lose a great part of the money loaned. In 
the Yerj able letter of the Secretary of the Treasury, it 
was stated to be one of the greatest recommendations of 
the new Exchequer scheme, that the money of the peo- 
ple would not be locked up, but would be loaned out, 
through the agency of this Government Bank, for the 
benefit of the people! With allvpersonal respect for 
the President of the United States, Mr. B. confessed 
that he viewed this scheme with dismay. What was it 
that had impaired the public morals, and, beyond all 
other things, injured the character and credit of this 
country ? Was it not bank defalcations ? Was there a 
day passed that w^e did not hear of new frauds and for- 
geries, and new defalcations and elopements ? The 
thing had got to be so common, that it no longer pro- 
duced any sensation. And where were the men who 
had been guilty of these crimes ? In our prisons and 
penitentiaries ? Not at all : they were walking about 
through the land ; and so thorough had the contagion 
become, so had it blunted the moral sense of the com- 
munity, that such olfenders were received into society, 
and treated as if they never had been guilty of a crime. 
The case had become a proper subject for the thunders 
of the pulpit. The vice of swindling had become so 
general, and had enjoyed such impunity, that it was 
growing unconscious of its own malignity and baseness. 
And should we now, when this iniquitous system was 
about to run down and perish by its own corruption — 
when the Bank of tlie United States had destroyed the 
widow and the orphan, and plundered all who had 
trusted to it, open a new fountain of corruption to flood 
the land, by establishing a new Government Bank, on 



BOARD OF EXCHEQUER. 55 

principles as false and baseless as those of the wcrst in- 
stitutions of the country ? He trusted not 

He asked, where was the warrant in the Constitution 
for such an institution ? Would any gentleman point it 
out to him ? Did a scheme like this come from the 
good old school of Virginia abstractions? Was this in 
accordance with the principles of the ever-momorable 
resolutions of 1798 and 1799 ? By what mode of con- 
struction can such a measure be warranted ? Was such 
a thing as this Exchequer Board a necessary or proper 
means to carry into effect any of the enumerated powers 
of this Government ? This bill, in its leading princi- 
ples, had been shadowed forth on this floor in 1837. 
But Mr. B. had then resisted the giant intellect which 
brought it forth. It was then contended that the United 
States Government had a right to issue paper money for 
circulation, and to control the issues of the State banks. 
He had then felt proud in opposing, and had been much 
gratified to learn tliat the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. 
Clay) concurred with him in opinion. But what had 
become of the constitutional argument now? The power 
was taken for granted in the letter of the Secretary of 
the Treasury. It was deemed so clear, Mr. B. pre- 
sumed, that it was not thought necessary even to allude 
to it. The question was not argued or referred to in 
the remotest manner. Mr. B. had, in 1837, denied the 
power to regulate the paper currency, as not to be found 
in the Constitution. It was then claimed as incidental to 
the power to regulate commerce. What sort of a con- 
struction was this ? .... This power of regulation 
was the simplest of all powers. In the language of 
Chief Justice Marshall, it was " the power to prescribe 
the rule by which commerce is to be governed." What 
would the venerable patriots who framed the Constitu- 
tion think or say, could they now witness this attempt to 
pervert this mere power of legislative regulation into an 
authority to create a great Government Bank, and to 
issue millions of the same kind of paper money which 
they had solemnly condemned in convention ? A po^ver 
to regulate necessarily supposed the existence of some- 
thing to be regulated. It was essentially diffei-ent from 
a power to create. Tlius, the Constitution had conferred 



66 LIFE OF SON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

on Congress the power " to coin money." This ras the 
creative power ; and then, after this money had been 
called into existence, came the power " to regulate the 
value thereof." Commerce, both foreign and domestic, 
was in existence when the Constitution was adopted ; 
and it simply conferred upon Congress the power to. 
regulate, that is, " to prescribe the rule by which it was 
to be governed." A similar course of argument might 
be adopted, with much greater plausibility, to prove 
that Congress possesses the power to enter the territories 
of the sovereign States, and, without their consent, con- 
struct railroads and canals. It might be said that com- 
merce could not be conducted without railroads and 
canals ; and, therefore, Congress possesses the powder to 
construct them. By the same course of reasoning, the 
Government might itself engage in commerce, to pre- 
vent it from languishing for want of private capital, and, 
like the Bank of the United States, become a buyer and 
seller of cotton as well as of exchange. Mr. B. did not 
believe that "the power to coin money and regulate the 
value thereof," conferred the power to create paper mon- 
ey ; such an inference seemed to him to be monstrous and 
revolting. This power was claimed by such inferences 
in the very face of the solemn action of the convention 
on the very subject. Under the old Articles of Confed- 
eration, Congress possessed the power "to borrow money 
or e7mt hills on the credit of the United States ^ The 
convention which framed the present Constitution ex- 
pressly denied to Congress this power of emitting such 
bills of credit. Twice was the attempt solemnly made 
in the convention to confer this very power upon Con- 
gress, and twice did it signally fail. Yet this power was 
now contended to exist in its utmost latitude as an inci- 
dent to the commercial and coining powers. This at- 
tempt never sprang from the glorious old Yirginia school 
of strict construction. By such a mode of reasoning, an 
ingenious man might find any power which he desired 
to exercise, slumbering in the text of the Constitution. . 



THE MAINE BOUNDARY QUESTION. 57 



MR. BUCHANAN'S FOREIGN POLICY. 

Mr. Buchanan's course on the foreign policy of our 
Government is one upon which every citizen can look 
with conscientious pride. Always moderate and con- 
ciliatory in his foreign policy, and prizing peace with 
the world as a national blessing, his feelings prompted 
him to discourage war. But, while this was his charac- 
teristic, his national pride and his love of national honor 
led him to suffer no insult or aggression upon our coun- 
try's rights without a prompt resentment. His record 
upon the subject needs no comment. His p,ublic speech- 
es, letters, and his reports as chairman of the Committee 
on Foreign Kelations while in the Senate, are the best 
evidence of his abilities. To them the reader of our 
national history can recur with a delighted interest. 

THE MAINE BOUNDARY QUESTION. 

On the motion of Mr. Williams of Maine, June 18, 
1838, for leave to bring in " a bill to provide for survey- 
ing the Northeastern boundary line of the United States, 
according to the provisions of the treaty of peace of 
1783," Mr. Buchanan addressed the Senate in opposi- 
tion. He said that the bill proposed virtually to take 
out of the hands of the executive the control of the dis- 
puted question, concerning the Northeastern boundary, 
and assume the responsibility of terminating negotia- 
tions upon it. 

" For a period of fifty years," said Mr. B., " om\ 
boundary has been a subject of dispute between the two 
nations. This portion of it has been referred to commis- 
sion^'s, and they have failed to agree. Afterwards it 
was submitted to the King of the Netherlands, and the 
United States rejected his award, because it was made 
by violation of the terms of submission. Negotiations 
have been pending ever since." To force the question 

8* 



58 LIFE OF HOK. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

to a solution through the agency of the Senate, would bo 
highly imprudent at that juncture. An embittered feel- 
ing prevailed on both sides of the proposed boundary, 
and in addition to this, throughout Canada a defiant 
note of hostility to the United States was sounded, grow- 
ing out of the unfortunate frontier troubles of the previous 
year. Mr. Buchanan then entered into some detail to 
show that the boundary line claimed by this Govern- 
ment was most clearly the true oue, and expressed his 
opinion in these w^ords : '^ Upon the whole, I solemnly 
declare, after having divested my mind of all partiality 
in favor of my country, so far as that was possible, that 
I never have examined any disputed question in which 
the right appeared to me to be more clear and plain' 
than it does in favor of the United States in the present 
controversy." 

On the 28th of February, 1839, Mr. Buchanan, in be- 
half of the Committee on Foreign Kelations in the Senate, 
reported upon the subject of the difficulties on the north- 
eastern frontier. The resolutions appended to the report 
afford evidence of the guarded and jealous eye with 
which he regarded any aggression on the part ot 
other powers against our country, and the desire which 
actuated him to place our country in a posture of de 
fence — to enable us to promptly repel any attempt at an 
invasion of our rights. After reciting in the first and 
second resolutions- that the Committee could find no 
trace in the correspondence and documents of any under- 
standing either expressed or implied, and much less an 
explicit agreement that the territory in dispute on 
the northeastern boundary of the country should re- 
main under the exclusive jurisdiction of her Britannic 
Majesty's Government until the settlement of the ques- 
tion, and that the Committee were nnable to perceive 
that the State of Maine had violated the spirit of the 
understanding during the pendency of negotiations by 
merely sending, under the authority of the Legislature, 
her land agents with sufficient force into the disputed 



THE MAINE BOUNDARY QUESTION. 59 

territory for -the sole purpose of expelling lawless tres- 
passers engaged in impairing its value, by cutting down 
its timber (both parties having a common right in" this), 
the tliird resolntion says : 

" That should her Britannic Majesty's Government, in 
violation of the clear understanding between the parties, 
persist in carrying its avowed determination into execu- 
tion, and attempt by military force to assume exclusive 
jurisdiction over the disputed territory, — all of which 
they firmly believe belongs rightfully to the State of 
Maine — the exigency, in the opinion of the Senate, w^ill 
then have occurred, rendering it the imperative duty of 
the President under the constitution and laws to call 
forth the militia and employ the military force of the 
United States for the purpose of repelling such invasion." 

Tlie fourth resolution declares, that " should the British 
authorities refrain from attempting a military occupation 
of the territory in dispute, and from enforcing their claim 
to exclusive jurisdiction over it by arms, then the State 
of Maine, in the opinion of the Senate, ought, on her 
23art, to pursue a course of similar forbearance." And in 
conclusion, the resolution says, that " should the State 
refuse to act thus forbearingly, and determine to settle 
the controversy for herself, then there will be no obliga-^ 
tion imposed on the Government to sustain her by mili- 
tary aid." 

On the second of March a bill came in from the House 
giving the President additional powers to act in the mat- 
ter in case of an invasion. Some opposition being mani- 
fested to making the proposed appropriation, Mr. Bucha- 
nan said : 

" Should Maine act in accordance with the spirit of 
these resolutions, then if war must come, it will find the 
country unanimous. On the part of Great Britain, the 
war will be a war of pure aggression, waged during the 
pendency of peaceful negotiations, for the purpose of 
assuming exclusive military jurisdiction against the clear 
understanding of the two governments over a territory to 
which she has not even the color of a title. In such an 



60 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

event, the only alternative is war or national dichonor ; 
and between these two what American can hesitate? 
Force must be repelled with force, or national degrada- 
tion is the inevitable consequence All we 

have to do is to stand on the defensive and exercise for- 
bearance, until the shocli of arms shall render forbear- 
ance no longer a virtue Would we not 

present a ridiculous spectacle before all mankind if we 
were to adopt these resolutions, and then adjourn and 
leave the President without a dollar to defend the coun- 
try in case it should be attacked. This bill is, in fact, but 
little more than a contingent appropriation of $10,000,- 
000, placed at the disposal of the President to enable 
him to call forth the militia in execution of the constitu- 
tion and existing law for the purpose of repelling a 
threatened invasion of the disputed territory. Now, 
sir, what less can we do, unless, regardless of our 
duty, we should determine to adjourn whilst war is im- 
pending over us without providing the means of defence. 
. . . . "VYliat, then, is the inevitable consequence of 
the Senator's argument which we have heard ? That we 
shall adopt no precautionary measures to repel the 
threatened invasion, lest perchance they may be con- 
strued into a menace by the invading power 

If we adjourn without passing this bill, we shall well 
deserve the reputation of being a government valiant in 
resolutions upon paper — a government mighty in words, 
but contemptible in action. We should become the 
scorn of our constituents." 

But notwithstanding the strong position which Mr. 
Buchanan takes with reference to resisting asrsrression in 
a prompt and decided manner, a manner becoming a 
government of freemen, yet in the same speech he gives 
wise counsel to the people of Maine, to get them so to 
conform their conduct as to not complicate the difficul- 
ties. He says : 

" When this danger is impending, I trust that Maine 
will not embarrass us in pursuing our cause to the end. 
That she has cauge of complaint I cheerfully admit. 
But let her continue to rely upon the general govern- 



THE MAINE BOUNDARY QUESTION. 61 

ment, and when the crisis shall arrive, if arrive it must, 
she will find the country as one man rushing to her res- 
cue. On the contrary, should tlie patriotic, but excited 
feeling which now seems to pervade her citizens, drive 
them into acts of aggression and involve us in war, the 
best cause will be weakened by such conduct, and dis- 
traction and division among the citizens of other States 
may be tlie consequence. Let her be prudent as well as 
firm. This controversy must be soon ended, either by 
nei^otiation or by arms. Let her patiently and patrioti- 
cally await the result, unless the territory should be ac- 
tually invaded." 

This speech of Mr. Buchanan was delivered very late 
at night, the session being prolonged to finish up the 
business before the body rose finally two days subse- 
quently. At 4 o'clock in the morning the bill was 



On the ITth of January, 1840, a resolution was sub- 
mitted to the Senate, calling on the President of the 
United States for the correspondence with the British 
government on the subject of the Maine boundary, and 
whether any measures had been taken under the act of 
Congress of 1839 to cause the expulsion of the British 
troops, which had taken possession of a portion of the 
territory of Maine claimed by Great Britain, and as to 
whether any military posts had been established in 
Maine, or any other military measures adopted, to resist 
what were termed aggressive acts on the part of Great 
Britain upon undisputed territory. Mr. Buchanan on 
this occasion made an elaborate and powerful speech, 
setting forth clearly and in unmistakable terms his views 
upon the question of a proper and just vindication of the 
honor and rights of the United States, as connected with 
the persevering claim made by Great Britain to a por- 
tion of the territory of Maine. The resolution itself he 
opposed on the ground that the negotiations, at that time 
pending between the United States and the British gov- 
ernment, were then at a crisis, when the establishment 



62 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

of military posts in the disputed territory would have 
been highly censurable, and afford the British govern- 
ment great cause of offence. He further urged that the 
laying before Congress the correspondence in question, 
might have the effect to break off pending negotiations 
between the United States and the British government. 
The close of this speech, as showing Mr. Buchanan's 
views of what the United States should do in case of 
persistence on the part of the British government in its 
claim to this disputed territory, was as follows : 

" I am very apprehensive that we may have serious 
difficulties with the British authorities before the close of 
this controversy ; my earnest desire is, therefore, that our 
proceedings may be marked with such justice, modera- 
tion, and lirmness, as to justify us in the eyes of all man^ 
kind. A contest must be avoided, if this be possible, 
consistently with national honor, and then, if it should 
be forced upon us, we shall be a united people." 

During the j^endency of a debate in the Senate in the 
year 1842, upon a proposition involving the giving to 
the States of large quantities of the proceeds of the pub- 
lic lands (the' northeastern boundary being still unset- 
tled), Mr. Buchanan said : 

" I cannot refrain from expressing the opinion that 
there is serious danger of war. At all events I consider 
the chances of peace and war about equal. To be sure 
it would be an act of folly unsurpassed for the two na- 
tions to plunge into war ; but yet no prudent nation 
placed in the position in which we now stand, ought to 
neglect the duty of providing at least for the important 
defences of the country. And yet, whilst danger is 
staring us in the face, we propose to give away the very 
sinews of war — the very means of self-defence. Thanks 
to the all -pervading arrogance and injustice of England, 
each portion of our Union has now a separate and just 
cause of quarrel against that nation, peculiarly calcu- 
lated to arouse its feelings of indignation. We have the 
Northeastern Boundary question, the Caroline question, 



THE ASHBURTON TREATY. 63 

the Creole question, and tlie JSToi'tlnvestern Boundary 
question, and above all the right of search. Should we 
be forced into war in the present state of the controver- 
sy, we shall be a united people, and the war will be 
conducted with all our energies, physical and moral. In 
the present attitude of our affairs, I say, then, let us set- 
tle all of these questions or none. All or none ought to 
he our motto. If we must go to war we could not desire 
a more favorable state of the questions than exists at 
present between the two nations. If all these questions 
except one should be adjusted, we shall be in as much 
danger of war from the single one which may remain as 
we are at present ; whilst we would incur the risk of de- 
stroying that union and harmony among the people of 
this country, wdiich is the surest presage of success and 
victory. On all the questions in dispute between the 
two nations, except the right of search, I would concede 
much, to avoid and to restore our friendly relations, pro- 
vided they can be all adjusted I trust and 

hope that all of these agitating questions may be settled. 
I should gladly review each one of them, but I feel that, 
at the present moment, it would be discourteous towards 
the distinguished stranger (Lord Ashburton) whom Eng- 
land has deputed to negotiate upon them. I would not 
say a word which could by possibility interfere with the 
negotiation. I hope he has come amongst us bearing 
the olive-branch of honorable peace. If he has, there is 
no man in this country more ready to welcome his arri- 
val than myself. But, in the present position of our 
public affairs, I must ever protest against parting with 
any portion of our revenue when our country may so 
soon require it all for defence against the most formida- 
ble nation on earth." 



THE ASHBURTON TREATY. 

Tlie British treaty made between Mr. Webster and 
Lord Ashburton in 18^2, called out a long discussion in 
the United States Senate, in secret session, upon the 
question of its ratification. The importance of the ques- 
tions at issue between the United States and Great 



64 LIFE OF HON". JAMES BUCHANAN. 

Britain, made it a subject of gravest and careful con- 
sideration. It will be remembered that Lord Ashbur 
ton, according to the declaration of Mr. Webster, was 
"charged with full powers to negotiate and settle all 
matters in discussion between the two countries." These 
questions of dispute at that time were : 1. The North- 
eastern boundary. 2. The right of search in the Afri- 
can seas, and the suppression of the African slave-trade. 
3. The surrender of fugitives from justice. 4. The title 
to Columbia Eiver. 5. Impressment. 6. The' attack on 
the Caroline. 7, The case of the Creole, and of other 
American vessels which had shared the same fate. To 
the treaty as submitted for ratification, Mr. Buchanan 
objected. His great speech on the subject, setting forth 
the grounds of this objection, was given in the Senate 
August 19th, 1842. It was a masterly eflfort, and 
such a speech as might be looked for from such a 
man as Mr. Buchanan. There was no crino^ins" to 
foreign aggressive power, although this aggression pro- 
ceeded from the most powerful nation on earth. The 
speech was a calm and dignified vindication of the coun- 
try''s honor and rights, and though opposing the treaty 
2:)er se^ yet breathed in every line and sentiment, the 
firmest and most unyielding patriotism. The character 
of the subjects involved, taken in connection w^th the 
unpopular side advocated by Mr. Buchanan, renders it 
necessary that somewhat extended extracts from the 
speech should be made, to show the correctness of the 
positions held by Mr. Buchanan. 

He commences with expressing undoubted conviction, 
that the first impulse of the public feeling will be, to con- 
demn the senators opposing the ratification of the treaty. 
As he was on the side of the opposition, he hoped the in- 
junction of secrecy upon the proceedings of the Senate 
would be removed, that his reasons for thus opposing 
might be made known to the public. 

Mr. B., after alluding to the utter failure of every ne- 



THE ASHBURTON TREATY. 65 

gotiation between the United States and Great Britain, 
turning on other matters in dispute than that of the 
Maine boundary, proceeds to speak of the remaining 
matters involved in the correspondence between Mr. 
Webster and Lord Ashburton, but not embraced in the 
treaty. In the course of his remarks upon the subject of 
the impressment of American seamen, he expresses him- 
self in the following emphatic terms : 

" I confess, sir, I did not anticipate that the subject of 
impressment would form any part of the negotiations. 
This question ought never to have found a place in the 
correspondence, unless from the preliminary conferences 
.it had been ascertained that England was prepared to 
renounce the practice forever. Its introduction has 
afforded Lord Ashburton the opportunity of insisting 
upon a claim, to which we can never practically submit, 
without being disgraced and degraded among the na- 
tions of the earth. We declared war against Great Brit- 
ain thirty years ago to protect American seamen from 
impressment ; and she, and all the world ought to know, 
that we shall declare war again, should the practice be 
ever resumed. If the stars and stripes,* which float over 
an American vessel upon the ocean, cannot protect all 
those who sail beneath them from impressment, no mat- 
ter to what land they may owe their birth, then we are 
no longer an independent nation. Whenever any British 
officer shall dare to violate the flag of our country on the 
ocean, and shall seize and carry away any seaman from 
•the deck of an American vessel, no matter what may 
be the pretence (unless instant reparation should be 
made by his government for the outrage), our only 
alternative will then be war or national dishonor. We 
are deeply, solemnly pledged before the world to avenge 
such a wrong without a moment's unnecessary delay. 
Such an act would, in eflect, be a declaration of war 
against us ; and Great Britain knows it will. . . . 
War must be the necessary result of impressment, or our 
national honor must be a subject of scorn and contempt 
for all mankind." 

Mr. B. next proceeds to speak of the Carolina case. 



C6 LIFE OF nOS. JAMES BUCHANAX. 

This question, he think.*, might have been settled satis- 
factorily, with great ease. As it was, he considers its 
disposal asaltugether too easy, and contents himself with 
])assing censure upon Mr. Webster. He claims that here 
was an act of grossest wrong ^:> American citizens, and 
claims that apology and indemnity was duo from the 
Jhitish government. He states, that nothing less than 
the two would have eatislied himself. The case of the 
Creole ^Ir. B. dismisses with a few words. That a mere 
diplomatic note of Ljrd Ashburton, in behalf of a former 
ministry* and not binding upon the British cal)inef,, after 
a change in the then existing ministry, should have been 
allowed to settle this matter, he thinks, meritin*' severe 
rebuke. He is not here sparing of his censures upon Mr. 
\Vebstcr, for liis aj)parent tame acquiescence to the dic- 
tation and wishes of Lord Ashburton. He did not con- 
sider this a Southern (piestion, or wrong done, but a (pies- 
tion deeply alVecting the honor of the whole country. In 
this connection occurethe f«>llowing sentence, showing, not 
only his linn adherence to the ]>rinciples of the Democratic 
party, but his lirnmess to stand up for the rights and inter- 
ests of the South : '' Whilst the Democrats of the North 
are opposed to slavery in the abstract, they are ever ready 
to maintain the constitutional ri^rht^ of the South again>L 
the tierce and fanatical spirit of Abolition. 1, therefore, 
claim the right to discuss the Creole question." Touch- 
ing the treaty itself, under this head ^Ir. B. urged the 
striking out of the eighth article, stipulating for the 
maintenance by Great Britain and the United States on 
the coast of AtVica, of a naval force, not less than eighty 
guns. The American squadron, he urged, would in 
etiect be but a subsidiary force to that of England. He 
adds, that ''the voice of the nation requires that we 
should make this auiendment (striking out tLe eighth 
article). Alter all that has passed, we should stand u])on 
this sacred principle of the law of nations : that the 
American flag, waving at the mast-head of an American 



THE ASHBUKTOX TREATY. 67 

vessel, shall protect her from violation and search by 
British cruisers." ... 

-Snrelv," said Mr. B., "the Senate will not ratifv 
that article of the treaty — surely, surely, the Senate will 
not ratify the unjust claim of the British Government to 
be the supreme protector of the rights of humanity, either 
'■^' the ocean or the land." 

< )n the subject of the Maine boundary question, be 
says : 

'*TliuR have we yielded to a foreign power, that 
ancii-'iit hf^rhland boundary for which our fathers fought. 
llius lias it been blotted out from the treaty which 
acknowledges our independence. Thus has England 
reclaimed an important portion of that territory which 
luid been wrusted from her by the bravery and the blood 
uf our Iweviilutionary Fathers. AVe have I'estored to her, 
not only all the land north of the St. John and St. Fran- 
cis, but also our mountain boundary south of these 
rivers down to the Metjarmette portag^. Along the 
]>a.'^e of these mountains she can, and she will, establish 
ftjrtifi cations and military posts, from which she may at 
once penetrate into the very heart of Maine. It is a 
vain labor for the Secretary to prove that the territory 
ceded is unfit i\>v cultivation. England did not regard 
it fur its agricultural value. Why did Lord Ashburton 
insist upon its surrender with so much pertinacity and 
zeal ? Because it not only covered Quebec and Lower 
Canada from our assaults, but exposed our territory to 
the assaults of England, widiout any interposing barrier. 
On the east, on the north, and on the west, Maine is now 
letl naked and exposed to the attacks of our domineering 
and insatiable neighbor; and we have bestowed upon 
her all this territory, without having asked her to grant 
us even the small "^strip north of Eel river, on the right 
bank of the St. John — which would have given us, to 
that extent, a river boundary. These highlands, through- 
out their whole range, from the northwest head of the 
Connecticut river to the northwest angle of Nowi Scotia, 
which divide the rivei*s flowing into the St. Lawrence 
from those which empty themselves into the Atlantic 



68 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHAI7AN. 

ocean, will exclusively belong to England, should tins 
treaty be ratified by the Senate. The Alpine boundary 
(which Adams, and Franklin, and Jay, had secured to 
their country by the treaty of Independence) has been 
extorted from us by our most formidable enemy. We 
have acted as the Roman Eepublic would have done, 
had she surrendered the Alps to the hostile ■ nations of 
Gaul and Germany. And this suicidal policy has been 
adopted, upon the principles or the pretext, that our 
Alpine barrier and boundary were not fit for cultivation ! 
This is the argument of Mr. "Webster. 

"The ancient Romans w^orshipped a god called Termi- 
nus. He was the guardian of the boundaries of the Re- 
public ; and such was his power that he would not yield, 
even to Jupiter himself. Upon this principle it was a 
sacred maxim both of their religion and their policy, 
that their boundaries should never recede. The Repub- 
lic was more than once driven to its last extremities. 
Her capital w^as sacked, and ruin seemed more than once 
to be her inevitable destiny ; but in the midst of desola- 
tion and defeat, no Roman Senator ever dared to pro- 
pose the smallest cession of her sacred soil. The boun- 
daries of the Roman Republic never receded, and we 
ought to have imitated her policy in this respect, how- 
ever much we may condemn her love of conquest — un- 
less, indeed, we had obtained an equivalent cession of 
territory. The demand to surrender the highlands, which 
protected our frontier south of the St. Francis, ought to 
have been met by an instant and absolute refusal, no 
matter what might have been the consequence. Instead 
of buying them from Maine or Massachusetts, in order 
that we might surrender them to England, we ought at 
once to have announced that w^e never could permit such 
a surrender to become the subject of negotiation. 

" It lias been said (and probably with truth) that in case 
we should ever determine to invade Canada, w^e should 
not march over those highlands. But this is not the 
question. Let us reverse the case, and suppose that Eng- 
land should* determine to invade us from Canada: would 
she not gradually collect and concentrate her forces into 
Maine without obstruction? And it must have been 
chiefly to obtain this Tery advantage, that Lord Ashbur- 



THE MAINE BOUNDARY QUESTION. 69 

ton was so anxious to acquire this territory, wliich, for- 
sooth, we are told is not fit for cultivation. The only 
crop she desires to raise upon it, like that of Cadmus, is 
a crop of armed men." 

Tlie concessions alleged to have been made hy Great 
Britain, Mr. Buchanan shows up with conciseness. The 
fact that ample concessions had thus been made was 
maintained by the advocates for the treaty. That it was 
otherwise is made evident by the following remarks of 
Mr. Buchanan : 

"The only concession on the part of Great Britain, 
which has even the appearance of an equivalent for the 
5,012 square miles of territory which we have ceded to 
her north of the St. John and the St. Francis, and the 
893 square miles south of the St. Francis, is the naviga- 
tion of the St. John. I say, the appearance^ for there is 
no reality in it. Had we yielded to Great Britain no 
more of the territory of Maine than that which was 
awarded to her by the King of the Netherlands, there 
w^ould have been some plausibility in calling this a par- 
tial equivalent. But what is now the state of the case % 
We have surrendered to her a territory embracing the 
head-waters of several of the branches and tributary 
streams of the St. John. The moment we made this 
concession, the surrender of the free navigation of that 
river became a matter of necessity, not of choice, for 
England. In order to purchase a right for the inhabi- 
tants of this ceded territory on the upper St. John, and 
the military posts which may be established there, to 
navigate that portion of the river which flows through 
our territory, England had no alternative but to grant 
to us a similar right of navigation along that portion of 
the river below, within her exclusive jurisdiction. Hence 
we find, in the article of the treaty relating to this sub- 
ject, a stipulation, on our part, that the inhabitants of 
the territory of the upper St. John, determined by this 
treaty to belong to her Britannic Majesty, shall have free 
access to and through the river lor their produce, in 
those parts where said river runs wholly through the 
State of Maine. 



70 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHAX.VN. 

" Thus it appears, on the very face of the treaty, that 
the right of each party to nayigate the river within the 
territories of the other, is a mntnal and reciprocal right. 
.... Away with such pretences. They are noth- 
ing more than mere flimsy apologies for the diss^race of 
an unqualified surrender of our territory to British dic- 
tation. They are the miserable pretexts under color of 
which it is expected that this disgraceful treaty shall es- 
cape from public indignation." 

As to the Oregon boundary, the following brief sen- 
tence shows Mr. Buchanan's position : 

"In any yiew of the subject, it was the duty of Mr. 
Webster to haye insisted on the settlement of this ques- 
tion, and to haye demonstrated our right, not only to the 
territory washed by the waters of tlie Columbia, but to 
the parallel of 54° 40' north latitude, in that clear and 
forcible manner for which he is distinguished wdien ad- 
yocating the cause of truth and justice." 

The conclusion of this speech, as summing up Mr. Bu- 
chanan's yiews of the relations of Great Britain and the 
United States, and the necessary vindication of our gov 
ernment's honor, at any cost, is as follows : 

" I have thus concluded all that I had intended to say 
on this treaty. I cannot vote for its ratification w^ithout 
doing violence to my own conscience and my most 
cherished principles. Nor am I to be driven from my 
propriety by the dread of war. I do not apprehend that 
w^ar would be the consequence of our refusal to ratify 
this treaty. Lord Ashburton himself has everywhere 
alluded to another arbitration as the alternative of a 
failure of success in the negotiations. If another arbiter 
should ever make an award as unfavorable to this coun- 
try as the terms of the present treaty — an event which I 
sTiould jiot anticipate — still we could sub'mit to his award 
without forfeiting our own self-respect. There would, 
have been no national degradation in submitting to the 
award of the King of The Netherlands ; but very differ- 
ent is the case, when we ourselves surrender to England 



THE OREGON QUESTION. Tl 

even more than we liad bestowed upon lier, after having 
for so many years resisted the award. 

"But suppose war should be the inevitable result? 
Tliere is one calamity still worse tlian even war itself; 
and that is national dishonor. The voluntary restoration 
to Great Britain of any portion of the sacred soil ' of the 
old thirteen,' which they had wrested from her dominion 
by the war of independence, without any corresponding 
equivalent in territory, is an event without a parallel in 
our past history ; and I trust in heaven that our future 
annals may never be disgraced by a similar occurrence. 
"We might have yielded this with honor, in obedience to 
the award of a sovereign arbiter, chosen under the pro- 
visions of the treaty of Ghent ; but we can never yield 
it without national disgrace to the imperious demand of 
that haughty power. In expressing myself thus inde- 
pendently, I am far, very far from intending to impeach 
the motives of Senators who are friendly to the treaty. 
I know and appreciate the purity and patriotism of their 
intentions, and sincerely regret that my own sense of 
duty compels me to differ so widely from them." 

THE OREGON QUESTION. 

Mr. Buchanan, while Secretary of State under Mr. 
Polk, entered into a correspondence with Mr. Pack- 
enham, the British Minister, upon the subject of the 
Oregon Boundary Question. A few extracts from the 
two principal letters he wrote in connection with this 
subject, will show that while he went in for a placable 
settlement of the entire question, he was strenuous in 
maintaining the rights and prerogatives of the United 
States. The first letter bears date July 19, 1845. It as- 
sumes the negotiation at the point where it was .left by 
Mr. Calhoun, his predecessor, which, it will be re- 
membered, was to submit the proposition the United 
States wished to make for an equitable adjustment of the 
question. Entering upon the merits of the subject m 
medias res^ Mr. Buchanan, in this first letter, proceeds 
as follows : 



72 LIFE OF HON". JAMES BUCHANAI7. 

'' The title of the United States to that portic.^n of the 
Oregon Territory between the valley of the ColumbiPo 
and the Knssian line, to 54° 40"' north latitude, is record- 
ed in the Florida treaty. Under this treaty, dated on 
the 22d February, 1819, Spain ceded to the United 
States alt her rights, claims, and pretensions to any ter- 
ritories west of the Rocky Mountains and north of the 
42d parallel of latitude. We contend that at the date of 
this cession Spain had a good title, as against Great 
Britain, to the whole Oregon Territory ; and if this be 
established, the question is then decided in favor of the 
United States. But the American title is now encoun- 
tered at every step by declarations, that she sold it sub- 
ject to all the conditions of the ITootka Sound Conven- 
tion between Great Britain and Spain, signed at the Es- 

curial, on the 28th of October, 1790 It is 

then of the first importance that we should ascertain the 
true construction and reasoning of the Nootka Sound 

Convention This treaty was transient in its 

very nature It conferred upon Great Britain 

no right but that of merely trading with the Indians 
whilst the country should remain unsettled, and making 

the necessary establishments for this purpose 

It did not interfere with the ultimate sovereignty of 

Spain over the territory It was annulled by 

the war between Spain and Great Britain in 1796, and 

has never since been renewed by the parties 

This convention of 1790 recognizes no right in Great 
Britain, either present or prospective, to plant perma- 
nent colonies on the northwest coast of America, or tO' 
exercise such exclusive jurisdiction over any portion of 
it as is essential to sovereignty. Great Britain obtained 
from Spain all she then desired, and even engagements 
that her subjects should not be disturbed or molested in 
landing on the coasts of those seas, in places not already 
occupied, for the purpose of carrying on their commerce 
with the natives of the country, or of making settlements 
there. . . . l^ov that settlements intended to expand 
into colonies to expel the natives, to deprive Spai-n of 
her sovereign rights, and to confer the exclusive juris- 
diction of the whole territory to Great Britain? Surely 
Spain never designed any such results, and if Great 



THE OREGON QUESTION. 73 

Britain has obtained those concessions of the K'ootka 
Sound Convention, it has been by tlie most extraordinary 
construction ever imposed ujDon human Language . . /. 
But whatever may be the true construction of the IN'ootka 
Sound Convention, it has, in the opinion of the under- 
signed, long since ceased to exist. The general rule of 
national law is, tliat war terminates all subsistuig treaties 
between the belligerent powers. Great Britain has 
maintained tliis rule to its utmost extent. . . . The 
Nootka Sound Convention is strictly of this character. 
The declaration of war, therefore, by Spain against Great 
Britain, in October, 1796, annulled its provisions and 
freed the parties from its obligation. . . , It has gone 
forever, unless it has been revived in express terms by 
the treaty of peace, or some other treaty between the 
parties. Such is the principle of public law and the 
practice of civilized nations. . . . The Nootka Sound 
Convention cannot in any sense, then, be considered a 
treaty of commerce, and was not, therefore, revived by 
the treaty of Madrid, in 1814. When the war com 
menced between Great Britain and Sptain, in 1796, sev- 
eral treaties subsisted between them, which were both 
in title and in substance treaties of commerce. These, 
and these alone, were revived by the treaty of 1814." 

Upon the above grounds Mr. Buchanan submits, that 
if Great Britain has valid claims to any portion of the 
Oregon territory they must rest upon a better founda- 
tion than that of the J^ootka Sound convention. He 
then proceeds to show that " to the United States belongs 
the discovery of the Columbia River, and that Captain 
Gray was the first civilized man who ever entered its 
muuth and sailed up its channel, baptizing the river 
itself with the name of his vessel ; that Messrs. Lewis 
and Clark, under a commission from this government, 
first explored the waters of this river, almost from its 
head springs to the Pacific, passing the winter of 1805 
to 1806 on its northern shore near the ocean ; that the 
first settlement upon this river was made by a citizen of 
the United States at Astoria, and that the British gov- 
ernment solemnly recognized our right to the possession 
of this settlement, which had been captured during the 
war, by surrendering it up to the United States on the 



T4: LIFE OF HON. JAxMES BUCHANAN. 

6tli day of October, 1818, in obedience to the treaty of 

Ghent The title of the United States to the 

entire region drained by the Columbia Kiver and its 
branches, was perfect and complete before the date ol 
the treaties of joint-occnpation of October, 1818, and 
August, 182Y, and under the express provisions of those 
treaties this title, whilst they endure, can never be im- 
paired by any act of the British government 

Our American title, to the extent of the valley of the 
Columbia, resting as it does on discovery, exploration, 
and possession — a possession acknowledged by the most 
solemn act of the British government itself — is a suffi- 
cient assurance against all mankind, whilst our super- 
added title derived from Spain extends our exclusive 
rights over the whole territory in dispute, as against 
Great Britain. Such being the opinion of the President 
in regard to the title of the United States, he could not 
have consented to yield any portion of the Oregon terri- 
tory had he not found himself embarrassed, if not com- 
mitted by the acts of his predecessors. They had uni- 
formly proceeded upon the principle of compromise in 
all their neo^otiations." 

o 

After expressing a desire to make one more effort to 
adjust this long-pending controversy, the letter concludes 
with a renewal of the proposition to the government of 
Great Britain, "that the Oregon territory shall be di- 
vided between the two countries by the forty-ninth par- 
allel of north latitude, from the Kocky Mountains to the 
Pacific Ocean, offering at the same time, to make free 
to Great Britain any port or ports on Yancouver's Island 
south of this parallel, which the British government may 
desire." 

The second letter of Mr. Buchanan bears date Aug. 
30, 1845, and is in reply to a rejoinder to the previous 
letter by Mr. Pakenham, bearing date July 29, 1845. 
The letter of Mr. Pakenham, it will be remembered, 
sought to establish the title of the British government to 
portions of the Oregon territory, claimed by Mr. Bu- 
chanan as belonging to the United States, and termi- 



THE OREGON QUESTION. 75 

nated with a rejection of the proposition of Mr. Bu- 
chanan, and asking the ximerican minister "to offer 
some further proposal for the settlement of tlie Oregon 
question more consistent with fairness and equity." 

Mr. Buchanan's reply to this letter of Mr. Pakenham 
is much more lengthy than his first communication. A 
concise and clear recital of all the facts pertaining to 
the early explorations and possession of the territory in 
dispute is first given, followed up with a renewal of the 
statement in his first letter, that upon these facts no sub- 
stantial basis can be presented in the E'ootka Sound con- 
vention, for resting on the part of Great Britain any 
valid claim to the Oregon territory. The following ex- 
tracts will sufiice to show the strongest concluding points 
of the letter, and withdrawal of the previous proposition 
of a compromise of the claim to Oregon by the two gov- 
ernments : 

" From a careful examination and review of the sub- 
ject, the undersigned ventures the assertion that to Spain 
and the United States belong all the merit of the dis- 
covery of the northwest coast of America south of the 
Russian line, not a spot of which, unless it may have 
been the shores of some of the interior bays and inlets 
after the entrance to them had been known, was ever 
beheld by British subjects until after it had been seen or 

touched by a Spaniard or an American 

The Spanish and American titles now united by the 
Florida treaty, cannot be justly resisted by Great Britain. 
Considered together they constitute a perfect title to the 
wdiole territory in dispute ever since the 11th of May, 
1792, when Captain Gray passed the bar at the mouth 
of the Columbia, which he had observed in August, 
1788." 

Mr. Buchanan proceeds to show in this connec- 
tion, that the title of the United States at least to the 
possession of the territory at the mouth of the Columbia, 
had been acknowledged by the most solemn and une- 
quivocal acts of the British government. He instances 



76 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

the restoration of Astoria, near tlie month of the Colum- 
bia Kiver, and other posts in the interior established 
along its banks, which was made by the British govern- 
ment to the United States after the war of 1812, the 
same having been taken by the British forces during 
this war. These were given up to the United States in 
conformity with the treaty of peace concluded at Ghent, 
1814, which provided that " all territory, places, and 
possessions whatsoever, taken by either party from the 
other during the war, &c., &c., shall be returned without 
delay." The subject as to title is concluded in the fol- 
lowing sentence : 

"Upon the whole, from the most careful and am- 
ple examination which the undersigned has been 
able to fasten upon the subject,' he is satisfied that 
the Spanish-American title now held by the United 
States, embracing the whole territory between the paral- 
lels of 42° and 54° 40', is the best title in existence to 
this entire region, and that the claim of (5reat Britain to 
any portion of it has no sufficient foundation." Relative 
to the proposition of compromise it is in conclusion 
added, that " such a proposition as that which had been 
made, never would have been authorized by the Presi- 
dent had this been a new question Consid- 
ering that Presidents Monroe and Adams had on former 
occasions offered to divide the territory in dispute by the 
49th parallel of latitude, he felt it to be his duty not ab- 
ruptly to arrest the negotiation, but so far to yield his 
own opinion, as once more to make a similar offer. 
. . . . These are the reasons which actuated the 
President to offer a proposition so liberal to Great 
Britain. .... How has this proposition been re- 
ceived by the British plenipotentiary ? It has been re- 
jected without even a reference to his own government. 
. . . . Under such circumstances the undersigned 
is instructed by the President to say, that he owes it to 
his own country and a just a])preciation of her title to 
the Oregon territory, to withdraw the proposition to the 
British government which had been made under his di- 
rection, and it is hereby accordingly withdrawn." 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 77 



THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 

One of the important meiisures originating v/ith the 
Democracy was the Act for the Annexation of Texas. 
This measure met the cordial approbation of Mr. Bu- 
chanan, who advocated it in his speeches in the Senate. 
His main speech in favor of the bill was delivered at 
the session of 184:4, '5. 

After an appropriate introduction, in which Mr. Bu- 
chanan dwelt upon the importance of the question upon 
ivhich they were soon to vote, he said : 

" Texas now presents herself before you, and asks to 
be admitted as a territory into your confederacy. How 
natural it is that she should desire this reunion, and be 
ready to tush into your arms ! A sister separated from 
the family, and in "a land of strangers, loves her home 
with more intense ardor than those who have never been 
deprived of its blessings. She longs to return to it, and 
counts the days and the months until the blessed period 
of reunion shall arrive. Such are the feelingsof Texas. 
Ever since she became independent of the foreign nation 
to whom we bartered her away, she has cast a ' longing, 
lingering look' back upon the family altar. Slie has 
again and again applied to be restored, and has as often 
been repulsed by her sisters. But all this has not yet 
estranged her heart from the family. She now makes, 
I fear, a last appeal; and shall we drive her away in 
despair to form alliances with strangers? I trust not. 
We ought to be careful how we longer repulse her 
advances and reject her suit. We ought to i^member, 
that love turned to hate is the most bitter feeling of the 

human heart By the treaty of Louisiana, 

of April 30th, 1803, the United States acquired this 
province from France. Under this treaty we entered 
into a solemn, agreement with France that the inhabit- 
ants of the ceded territory ' should be incorporated intu 
the Union of the United 'States as soon as possible, ac- 
cording to the principle of the federal constitution ;' and 
shoukCin the mean time, be protected in tlie free enjoy- 
ment of their liberty, property, and religion. In what 



78 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

manner have we redeemed our faith thus plighted tc 
France ? Texas was ours ; but it is ours no longer. In 
violation of the treaty of Louisiana, we ceded Texas to 
Spain by the Florida treaty of 1819. ^Ye thus dismem- 
bered the valley of the Mississippi, and extended the 
boundary of a foreign nation along our most weak and 
defenceless coast. In the course of human events this 
territory is again presented to us for our acceptance. 
When we ceded it to Spain it was almost a wilderness ; 
now it is peopled by our sons, our brothers, and our 
kindred, who have convinced the world by their bravery 
that they are worthy of their breeding. They offer to 
]'eturn to our bosom themselves, and to restore to us this 
fine and fertile country which we had lost, — a country 
more extensive than France, and naturally as beautiful, 
and blessed with ahnost every variety of soil and climate. 
And shall we reject this munificent donation ? They 
justly appreciate a union witli us as the highest privilege 
which any political community on earth can eujoy, and 
are willing to surrender themselves and their all to be- 
come free and sovereign states of.our confederacy." 

After reciting and proving from the records the gene- 
ral desire of the inhabitants of Texas, that that state 
should be annexed, Mr. Buchanan stated the reasons 
why their request should be granted. He showed that 
by ceding Texas to Spain we gave up our natural South- 
west Boundary, the Eio del Norte, and a chain of moun- 
tains, for a mere arbitrary line. Whoever casts his eyes 
upon the map would be convinced of this truth. This 
treaty gave a foreign nation territory upon the banks of 
two of our noblest rivers — the Arkansas and the Red 
rivers — both tributaries to the Mississippi, and thus laid 
the foundation of perpetual disputes concerning their 
navigation. 

" In the second place," said Mr. Buchanan, ^' Texas 
ought to be annexed to the United States, because 
this would greatly increase our internal commerce, 
extend the market for our domestic mxanufactures, and 
bind the Union together by still stronger bonds. But, 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 79 

on the other hand, if you reject Texas, she will neces- 
sarily form a commercial alliance with our great rival, 
England, w^ho would thus secure to herself tiie finest 
cotton-growing region of the earth, at our ex2>ense, and 
to the lasting injury and prejudice of all our great 
interests. It has heen estimated that our internal com- 
merce, or home trade, is already lifteen times as great 
as our commerce with foreign nations. The acquisition 
of Texas would, in a very few years, vastly increase this 
domestic trade. The manufacturers of the Korth would 
here find an ever-growing market ; whilst our commer- 
cial marine and our steam vessels would obtain profit- 
able employment in transporting the cottou, the sugar, 
and the other agricultural productions of Texas, not only 
throughout the Union, but over the world. Ours will 
be a glorious system of free trade, and the only one 
which the jealousy and interest of foreign nations will 
ever permit us to enjoy. Should Texas be annexed, and 
our IJnion preserved, there are human beings now in 
existence who will live to see one hundred millions ot 
freemen within its limits, enjoying all the benefits ot 
free trade and unrestricted commerce with each other. 
. . . . But suppose we reject Texas, what will be 
the consequences ? And here I invoke the patient atten- 
tion of the Senate. From the necessity of the case she 
must cast herself into the arms of England. Both her 
interest and her safety render this inevitable. I do not 
believe that Texas would ever become a colony of Eng- 
land, or that England desires to colonize Texas. Eng- 
land could not make her a colony without certain war 
with this country, unless we should abandon the principle 
announced by Mr. Monroe in 1823, and which was en- 
thusiastically hailed by the American people, that Euro- 
pean nations shall no longer be permitted to jjlant colo- 
nies on our Continent, lio, sir, Texas will never become 
a colony of England, but she will form a conmiercial 
alliance with England. To this we could not object 
under any principle of the law of nations. Such an 
alliance, in its consequences, vrould be equally injurious 
to our peace and prosperity. That England is eager for 
such a consummation, who can doubt ? She is ever 
ready to depress a rival, and to advance her own interest ; 



80 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

and never has she yet been able to strike so severe a 
blow against the United States as she would do by form- 
ing such an alliance with Texas. To England the cotton 
manufacture is necessary, not merely to her prosperity, 
but almost to her very existence. Destroy it, and you 
ruin her prosperity. She well knows that she is neces- 
sarily dependent upon the nation which holds in its 
hands the raw material of this manufacture. Such is 
our position towards her at the present moment. To 
relieve herself from this dependence, she has endeavored 
to promote the cultivation of cotton everywhere through- 
out the world. Brazil, Egypt, and the East Indies have 
all, in turn, been the theatre of her operations ; but she 
has yet succeeded nowhere to any great extent. ^ She 
has encountered difficulties in the soil or in the climate 
of these different countries, which she has not been able 
to overcome. Texas is now presented to her with a soil 
and climate better adapted to the cultivation of cotton 

than any other region on the face of the earth 

England would not be true to herself (and she has never 
yet been false to her own interest) if she did not eagerly 

desire to form a commercial alliance with Texas 

British manufactures, in such an event, will be admitted 
into Texas entirely free, or at a very low rate of duty; 
and a system of smuggling will be organized along our 
extended frontier, which no vigilance can prevent, and 
which will greatly reduce our revenue, and injure our 

domestic manufactures Now, sir, annex Texas 

to the United States, and we shall have within the limits 
of our broad confederacy all the famed cotton-growing 
regions of the earth. England will then forever remain 
dependent upon us for the raw material of her greatest 
manufacture ; and an army of one hundred thousand 
men would not be so great a security for preserving the 
peace between the two nations as this dej^endence.'^ 

Mr. Buchanan then proceeded to answer the objec- 
tions which were urged to the admission of Texas, which 
he did in a masterly manner. He demonstrated the 
existence of the constitutional right of this country to 
receive hei into the Union. To the objection urged that 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 81 

one nation cannot incorporate itself with anotL >r by 
means of a treaty, he cited authorities on international 
law, Yattel among others, going to show the direct con- 
verse of the proposition. Mr. Buchanan evinced a like 
ability in replying to the objection that by the annexa- 
tion of Texas we would violate a treaty with Mexico, 
which power was pursuing a justifiable war against 
Texas, with the view of recovering her as a part of her 
dominions. In discussing this point he showed a pro- 
found knowledge of international law, of which his expo- 
sitions were able and conclusive. lie contended that 
the war waged by Mexico against Texas was an unjust 
war, and in support of this point he appealed to the his- 
tory of the countries. 

" In 1824" (said Mr. Buchanan) " Mexico adopted her 
constitution. Under it the Mexican republic was com- 
posed of a number of sovereign states, confederated 
together in a federal union similar to our own. Each 
state had its own legislature, judiciary and governor, 
and for all local purposes was as independent, both of 
the general government and that of the other states, as 
is Pennsylvania or Virginia under our confederacy. 
Texas and Coahuila united and formed one of these 
Mexican states, and its constitution, which was approved 
by the Mexican confederacy, asserted that it ' was free 
and independent of the other united- Mexican states, and 
of every other foreign power and dominion,' and asserted 
the great principle of human liberty — that 'the sove- 
reignty of the State resides originally and essentially in 
the general mass of the individuals who compose it.' 
The people of Texas swore in the presence of their God 
to maintain their own constitution and the federal con- 
stitution of Mexico. The strongest inducements were 
thus presented to the citizens of the United States to 

emigrate to Texas In 1835 Santa Anna, at 

the liead of a mercenary army, effected a revolution in 
Mexico, changed the form of the Government entirely, 
and became the dictator of the Eepublic. On the 2d 
of October, 1835, a decree was issued by the General 

4* 



82 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

Congress of Mexico, at his bidding, directing the Con^ 
gresses of the different States imtnediately to desist from 
the exercise of their legishitive functions ; and on the 
23d of the same montli, another decree emanated from 
the same body, annihilating the constitntions of the 
sovereign states of tl^e confederacy, and converting them 
into mere departments of the central government estab- 
lished at Mexico. The Legislature of Texas was expelled 
from their own hall at the point of the bayonet. . . . 
From the very moment that Santa Anna violated her 
constitution, Texas was absolved from all allegiance to 
him and to his government, and she stood before the 
world, both de facto and de jure^ a free, sovereign, and 
independent nation." 

The final action on the bill, as is w^ell knoTVTi, was its 
adoption, and by it our national boundaries were re- 
moved ikrther westward, and territory was secured out 
of wdiich several new States are to be formed, and ad- 
mitted to our confederacy. Tlie intelligent millions 
who, in future years, shall populate that soil, surrounded 
by the institutions of freedom, by wealth and prosperity, 
will cherish with gratitude the names of those men who, 
looking beyond the present, so shaped their action that 
it might redound to the benefit of posterity in all coming 
time. 

THE OSTEND CIRCULAR. 

It is the rare good fortune of Mr. Buchanan to have 
sustained a long career of public life with such singular 
discretion, integrity, and ability, that now, when he is 
presented by the great national party of the country as 
their candidate for the highest dignity in the Republic, 
nothing is seriously urged by political hostility in exten- 
uation of his merit, save the alleged countenance to fili- 
buster enterprise and cupidity, inferred by his enemies 
from a strained interpretation of the recommendations 
and views of the Ostend Conference, The political oppo- 



THE OSTEXD UIRCULAK. 83 

nents of Mr. Biiclianan call upon bis supporters to vindicato 
the claiu'i tliey assert in behalf of Mr. Buchanan to conser- 
vatism, by reconciling that assumption with his partici- 
pation in the American Diplomatic Conference at Ostend 
and Aix la Chapelle, and with his adoption and endorse- 
ment, jointly with the Ministers of the United States to 
France and Spain, of the views and recommendations 
addressed by the three Ambassadors to the Department 
of State, on the 18th of October, 185i, in the letter 
commonly known as the Ostend Manifesto. The circum- 
stance that the opposition meet the nomination of Mr. Bu- 
chanan with no other objection impugning his qualifica- 
tions for the Presidential trust, cannot ftiil to confirm the 
popular belief in the justice and wisdom of the judgment 
that governed the Cincinnati Convention, in selecting 
a statesman so unassailable in the record of his political 
life, and so little obnoxious to personal censure and dis- 
trust, as the candidate of the great national party of the 
Union for the highest dignity in the Eepublic. For it is 
demonstrable that an erroneous impression exists as to 
the pui-port of the Aix la Chapelle letter ; and that the 
policy therein declared by Mr. Buchanan and his asso- 
ciates, is identical with that which has uniformly been 
regarded and avowed as the policy of the United States 
in respect to the Island of Cuba. And the belief en- 
deavored to be inculcated, that the policy of the Ostend 
Conference was adopted in consultation or co-operation 
with the Red Republicans of Europe, is equally errone- 
ous. This belief has originated in another supposition 
equally unfounded, that Mr. Soule was in league with 
the leaders of the European Revolutionary movement. 
The truth is, that fundaniental differences existed be- 
tw^een the policy of Mr. Soule and Mazzini, Ledru Rol- 
lin, Kossuth, and Louis Blanc ; and besides which fact it is 
well known that these revolutionary leaders themselves 
were agreed only upon one point, the necessity of revo- 
lution, and that they seldom speak to one another. The 



84 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

policy of the Revolutionary party of Europe in reference 
to Cuba was this. They desired the United States to 
assist the Democratic party of Spain in creating a revo 
lution at Madrid, which should dethrone the queen, and 
place the Democratic part}^ in j)ower, by the establish- 
ment of a republic, and then leave Cuba at her option 
to either remain a portion of the Spanish Republic, or 
seek annexation to the United States. This concession 
to the United States was to be in return for material aid 
furnished in effecting the Spanish revolution. The revo- 
lution thus accomplished was intended to be the initia- 
tive of further revolutions on the Continent. The Pyre- 
nees range of mountains which forms the boundary line 
between France and Spain are populated on either side 
by the most liberal men in either empire, the great mass 
of the inhabitants being Republican ; and could a re- 
public be established in Spain, the Pyrenees would not 
only furnish points from which to begin their revolu- 
tionary designs against France, but would form a barrier 
behind which they could defend themselves against any 
attack which Louis I^apoleon might make. The revolu- 
tion accomplished in France, Kossuth and Mazzini wouLd 
have but little difficulty in overthrowing the power of 
Austria in Hungary and Italy. Such were the objects 
which the revolutionary leaders of Europe had in view 
in endeavoring to secure the influence of the United 
States Government in support of their policy. 

It is needless to say, that neither the Ostend Confer- 
ence nor the Cabinet at Washington gave any counte- 
nance to this policy. The Ostend Conference looked at 
the Cuba question solely from an American point of 
view, and quite disconnected from the conflicts and in- 
terests of European politics, or the aspirations of revo- • 
lutionary leaders. On this account, so far from that 
policy receiving the favor of the Red Republicans, they 
were as pointed in their hostility to it as any of the 
monarchical organs of Europe, and did not hesitate to 



THE OSTEND CIRCULAR. 85 

• 

privately and sometimes publicly denounce Mr. Soule for 
havincr signed the Ostend Circular, as recreant to the 
expectations which they had formed in regard to him. 
Mr. Buchanan from first to last opposed the policy which 
would lead to the United States becoming involved in 
the European struggle, and held strictly to tlie American 
view of the question, in accordance with which the Os- 
tend letter was framed. 

The Conference at Ostend had its origin in the 
recommendation of Governor Marcy, who justly con- 
ceived that the mission with which Mr. Soule was 
charged at the Court of Spain might excite the jeal- 
ousy of other European powers, and that it was im- 
portant for the purpose of facilitating the negotiations 
there to be conducted, that explanations should be 
made to the governments of England and France, of 
the objects and purposes of the United States in any 
movement that events might render necessary, having in 
view the ultimate purchase or acquisition by this go^^- 
ernment of the Spanish Island of Cuba. The object of 
the consultation suggested by Mr. Marcy was, as stated 
in a letter to Mr. Soule, " to bring the common wisdom 
and knowledge of the three Ministers to bear simulta- 
neously upon the negotiations at Madrid, London, and 
Paris." These negotiations had not necessarily in view 
the transfer of Cuba to this country ; though that was 
one of the modes indicated, and seemingly the most ef- 
fective, of terminating the constantly recurring grievances 
upon the commerce of the United States, upon the honor 
of its tiag, and the personal rights of its citizens, which 
disturbed the cordial relations of the two countries, and 
infused acrimony into their intercourse connected with 
. the prosecution of commerce. Another expedient which 
Governor Marcy regarded with favor, was the independ- 
ence of the Island under the Creole sovereignty. At 
that time, in the summer of 1854, apprehensions of some 
important change in the social and political condition 



86 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

and relations of Cuba, were generally felt in tliis coun- 
try. Kumors prevailed, founded on the then recent de- 
crees and modifications of law pertaining to the servile 
condition, that it was in contemplation to establish the 
domination of the blacks in the Island ; that the slaves 
were to be freed and armed, and that an extensive in- 
troduction of native Africans was to be resorted to as a 
means of re-enforcing the strength of the dominant 
party. 

Such, indeed, was the policy of Great Britain : first, 
to keep alive the slavery agitation in the United States, 
not from motives of philanthropy, but, by thus inciting 
internal discord between the people of different sections 
of the Union, the United States would be prevented 
from turning its attention to further schemes of territo- 
rial extension ; and second, to flood Cuba with negroes 
mider a system of apprenticeship, in order to render it 
valueless to the United States. The execution of such a 
scheme was regarded as eminently 'dangerous to the 
peace and safety of this country, and was one which the 
United States could not sufler, as the inevitable effects 
of such a policy, carried out, would be, sooner or later, 
to induce a servile insurrection in the Southern States. 
With a colony containing a million and a half of free 
negroes, immediately off our shores, an expedition could 
at any time be organized under European aid, and sent 
from Cuba to our Southern States to incite a rebellion, 
with all its attendant horrors, among the slaves. Mr. 
Soule was instructed to ascertain whether it was in 
contemplation, and, if so, to seek to prevent it from 
being carried out, and to avert its baleful conse- 
quences to ourselves, by negotiating, first, for the pur- 
chase of Cuba, and if that were impracticable, then for 
the independence of the Island. It was not the greed of 
territorial expansion that prompted the instructions 
which convoked the Ostend Conference ; nor was that 
sentiment the controlling ono that prompted the adop- 



THE OSTEND CIRCULAR. 87 

tion by its members of tbe recommendations embodied 
in the Aix la Chapelle letter. The docmnent is too long 
to publish at length, but the material passage whicli 
contains the doctrines which the opposition would fain 
lead the people to believe are dangerous, is subjoined : 

" But if Spain, deaf to the voice of her own interest, and ac- 
tuated by stubborn pride and a false sense of honor, should 
refuse to sell Cuba to the United States, then the question will 
arise, what ought to be the course of the American Govern- 
ment under such circumstances ? Self-preservation is the first 
law of nature with States as well as with individuals. All na- 
tions have at different periods acted upon this maxim. Al- 
though it has been made the pretext for committing flagrant 
injustice, as in the partition of Poland, and other similar cases 
which history records, yet the principle itself, though often 
abused, has always been recognized. The United States has 
never acquired a foot of territory except by fair purchase, or, as 
in the case of Texas, upon the free and voluntary application 'of 
the people of that independent State, .who desire to blend their 
destinies with our own. Even our acquisitions from Mexico are 
no exception to the rule, because, although we might have 
claimed them by the right of conquest, in a just war, yet we 
purchased them for what was then considered by both parties a 
full and ample equivalent. Our past history forbids that we 
should acquire the Island of Cuba without the consent of Spain, 
unless justified by the great law of self-preservation. We must, 
in any event, preserve our own conscious rectitude and our own 
self-respect. 

" While pursuing this course, we can afford to disregard the 
censures of the word, to which we have been so often and so 
unjustly exposed. After we shall have offered Spain a price for 
Cuba far beyond its present value, and this shall have been re- 
fused, it will then be time to consider the question, does Cuba in 
the possession of Spain seriously endanger our internal peace 
and the existence of our cherished Union ? Should this ques- 
tion be answered in the affirmative, then, by every law, human 
and divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from Spain, if we 
possess the power. And this, upon the very same principle that 
would justify an individual in tearing down the burning house 
of his neighbor if there were no other means of preventing the 
flames from destroying his own home. Under such circum- 
stances, we ought neither to count the cost nor regard the odds 
which Spain might enlist against us. 



88 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

" We forbear to enter into tlie question wliether the present 
condition of the Island would justify such a measure. We 
should, however, be recreant to our duty — be unworthy of our 
gallant forefathers, and commit base treason against our posteri- 
ty, should we permit Cuba to be Africanized and to become a 
second St. Domingo, with all its attendant horrors to the white 
race, and suffer the flames to extend to our neighboring shores, 
seriously to endanger or actually to consume the fair fabric of 
our Union. We fear that the course and current of events are 

rapidly tending towards such a catastrophe 

"James Buchanan, 
"JouN Y. Mason, 
" Pierre Soule. 
*'Aix la Chapelle, Oct. 18, 1854." 

One brief sentence in the above describes the purport 
and substance of tbe whole document : " Our past his- 
tory forbids that we should acquire the Island of Cuba 
without the consent of Spain, unless justified by the 
great law of self-preseiwation." If the acquisition of the 
Island should become the very condition of our exist- 
ence, then if Spain shall refuse to part with it for a price 
^' far beyond its present value," we shall be justified 
" in wresting it" from her, " upon the very same princi- 
ple that would justify an individual in tearing down 
the burning house of his neighbor, if there were no 
other means of preventing the flames from destroying 
his own home." 

This doctrine is not original with the Ostend Confer- 
ence, nor did it emanate from filibustering cupidity ; 
nor is it a mere party issue. It has been as broadly as- 
serted, and as confidently and ably advocated, by a 
Whis: statesman and Administration, as in the Ostend 
Manifesto. Mr. Everett, United States Secretary of 
State, in his letter to the British and French Ministers 
declining the alliance tendered by them to guarantee 
the possession of Cuba to Spain for all coming time, de- 
fends his refusal, on the ground that the United States 
have an interest in the condition of Cuba which may 
justify her in assuming dominion over it — an interest in 



THE OSTEND CIRCULAR. 89 

comparison with ^vliicli tliat of England and France 
dwindles into insignificance. 

The truth is, that its doctrines are tlie reverse of fili- 
busterism, which means an nnhiwful, unanthurized dc))- 
redation of individuals on the territory of countries widi 
which we are at peace. The Ostend Circular recom- 
mends no suspension or repeal of the neutrality laws, no 
modifications of the restrictions imposed by our tradi 
tional policy and statutes upon the acts of individuals 
who choose to filibuster ; but it declares that, whenever 
an occasion arrives for a hostile act against the territory 
of any other nation, it must be by the sovereign act of 
the nation, through its regular army and navy. So in- 
consistent are the doctrines of the Ostend Circular with 
filibusterism, that the publication of that document re- 
sulted in the cessation of all filibustering attempts 
against Cuba. But this is not the only result. The acts 
of aggression upon our citizens and our commerce, by 
the authorities in Cuba, prior to the Ostend Conference, 
were of a character to seriously imperil the relations 
between the two countries. But since the Ostend Con- 
ference, most of those difficulties have been settled, and 
the remainder are now in the course of settlement ; and 
as the legitimate result of the bold and determined poli- 
cy enunciated at Ostend, there has not since been a 
single outrage against the rights of our citizens in Cuba. 
A vacillating or less determined course on the part of 
our ministers would have only invited further ag- 
gression. 

Thus it will be seen that the letter upon w^hich the 
charge is based by no means justifies the imputation. 
It only proves that, under circumstances threatening 
actual danger to the Republic, and in order to preserve 
its existence, the United States woidd be "justified, by 
the great law of self preservation," in acquiring the Isl- 
and of Cuba without the consent of Spain. In its care- 
ful preclusion of filibustering intent and assumption, it 



90 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

shows the predominance of a conservative influence in 
the Congress, which the country may safely attribute to 
the weight of Mr. Buchanan's counsels and character. 
It is obviously manifest from the tenor of the document, 
that the construction so sedulously contended for by the 
o])ponents of Democratic rule, is that which was most 
earnestly deprecated by the prevailing sentiment of its 
framers. Events were then in progress, and a perilous 
catastrophe seemed to impend, that asked of American 
statesmanship the exercise of all the decision, prudence, 
and energy at its command, to regulate and guide the 
one in such a way as, if possible, to stay or avert the 
other. The local administration in Cuba had become 
alarmed for its safety, and, influenced by apprehension 
and terror of American filibusters, had already adopted 
measures of undiscriminating aggression upon the United 
States Government, by dishonoring its flag and violating 
the rights of its citizens, which, if persisted in, would in- 
evitably have led to war. [N'or was this the only danger ; 
for it w^as industriously affirmed by those in the interests 
of Spanish rule, that the Island was to be "Africanized," 
and delivered over to " an internal convulsion which 
should renew the horrors and the fate of St. Domingo" — • 
an event to which, as Mr. Everett truly declares in his 
letter to the British and French Ministers declining the 
proposed alliance to guarantee Cuba to Spain, both 
France and England would prefer any change in the 
condition of that Island — not excepting even its acquisi- 
tion by the United States. Under the circumstances, 
nothing less than so decided a manifestation of deter- 
mined energy and purpose as was made through the in- 
strumentality of the Ostend Conference, would probably 
have prevailed to prevent that very struggle for the con- 
quest of Cuba, which it is now alleged to have been its 
purpose to precipitate. And thus, as often happens in 
the conduct of aflairs, the decision and firmness which 
seemed aggressive and menacing, facilitated a pacific 



PRE-EMPTION. 91 

and satisfactory solntion of difficulties tliat threatened 

WSiV. 

PRE-EMPTION. 

When the bill granting the n'ght of pre-emption to 
settlers on the public lands, came up for consideration in 
the Senate, on the 27th of January, 1838, Mr. Buchanan 
lent it his support; and on taking the floor, said : 

" It was nothis intention to go into any detailed argument 
upon the question before the Senate. Pie would "merely 
state, in general terms, the reasons why he should vote 
for the bill. It had been repeated over and over again 
m the course of this debate, that the bill before the Sen- 
ate would confer a bounty upon the actual settlers on the 
public lands, at the expense of the people of the United 
States. He denied that it would produce any such 
effect. These settlers would be compelled to pay the 
minimum price of one dollar and twenty-live cents per 
aci-e for their land. Could the Government now obtain 
more for it at public auction, had it remained unsettled ? 
Let the history of the past answer this question. From 
the first of January, 1823, until the present day, aver- 
aging all the land sales which had been made, the result 
was, that we had received two, three, four or five, or at 
the most six cents per acre more than what ' the settlers 
would be obliged to pay under this bill.' . . . The 
question then was : whether for the prospect — and a hope- 
less one it was — of obtaining six cents per acre more at 
public auction, we should attempt to_ expel the settlers 
from their lands ; and thus, by depriving them of a home, 
inflict the greatest misery and distress upon themselves 
and their families ?" 

'' Our past experience," said Mr. B., " ought to have 
taught us, that this was a question in which the Govern- 
ment had little, if any, pecuniary interest. It was a 
question between the actual settlers on the one side, and 
the organized bands of speculators, which attended the 
land sales, on the other. It was notorious — it had often, 
been established on this floor — that these speculators, act- 



92 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

ing in concert, had prevented bidding above the mini- 
mum prices, and had purchased ■ omMnost valuable lands 
at a dollar and a quarter per acre. If the settlers should 
not obtain these lands at this price, the speculators 
would. This was the alternative. Turn the question 
and argue it in whatever mode you might, still we come 
to the same result. . . . Past experience had ren- 
dered it certain that the United States will never receive 
more for their land than a cent or two per acre above 
the minimum price ; and for this inconsiderable diff'er- 
ence, he woukl not turn off the men who have settled 
upon our public lands, in order that they might be mo- 
nopolized at the public sales by speculators. Let the 
actual settlers have the ' first cut,' and sufficient will remain 
for the companies of speculators who attend the public 
auctions. He had no doubt that in both these modes of 
sales, there had been frauds ; but he should always lean 
to that side which would protect the poor man in the 
2)ossession of the land which he had rendered valuable 
^by the sweat of his brow, rather than in favor of those 
who had come from a distance, to purchase him out of 
house and home." 

Mr. Buchanan went on to say, "that a very large 
number of settlers had located on tliese lands, in the ab- 
sence of any law to the contrary, and that justice would 
not sanction their compulsory removal, perhaps at the 
expense of years of toil and frugality, and relying on the 
good faith of Government." And in conclusion, he said : 
'' As to the hordes of foreigners of which we had heard, 
they did not alarm him. Any foreigner from any coun- 
try under the sun, who after landing with his family on 
our Atlantic coast, will make his long and weary way 
into the fof'ests or prairies west of the Mississippi, and 
there, by patient toil, establish a settlement npon the 
public lands, whilst he thus manifests his attachment to 
our institutions, shows that he is worthy of becoming an 
American citizen. He furnishes us, by his conduct, the 
surest pledge that he will become a citizen the moment 
the laws of the country permit. In the mean time, so far 
as my vote is concerned, he shall continue to stand upon 
the same footing as citizens, and have his quarter-sectiop- 
of land at the minimum price." 



THE SLAVERY QUESTION. 93 



THE SLAVERY QUESTION. 

For years the question of slavery has been a vexed 
question before the nation. Until recently it was a mat- 
ter of but little importance, and excited scarcely no at- 
tention from the mass of intelligent, patriotic, and well- 
disposed citizens. But the insignificant spark kept alive 
by a few^ coteries of fanatics in different sections of the 
Union, has been by degrees fanned into a flame which 
now threatens to destroy the fairest political structure ever 
framed by human w^isdom, and ever consecrated to hu- 
man liberty. Already a powerful party is organized 
upon a sectional platform, which aims to abrogate the 
rights of fifteen States of our confederacy, by putting 
the reins of Government into the hands of men who rep- 
resent but a section of our glorious Union — who will 
construe the Constitution to suit the prejudices of a sec- 
tion, and thus desecrate that sacred instrument, which 
was bequeathed by our Kevolutionary fathers to pos- 
terity, at a time when sectionalism had no existence, 
and patriotism animated the breasts of all — when they 
could not foresee that our fair country would, before the 
lapse of a century, hug to its bosom the viper of sec- 
tionalism and disunion. To this crisis we have indeed 
arrived ; and though the hostile feelings which now array 
a portion of the people of one section of our common 
country against their brethren are such as must make 
the patriot weep, yet, when patriotism and devotion to 
our whole countr}^ triumphs .over fanaticism and section- 
alism, our political fabric will be firmer, because of be- 
ing cleansed of impurities by the searching ordeal 
through which it has passed. The thought is not to be 
entertained for a moment that the "^lood of the Revolu- 
tion was shed and the institutions of our country conse- 
crated to freedom were framed in vain ; but it is not to 
be disguised that the life of the nation is now imper- 



94 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

iiled, and that the sacred duty of every lover of his 
coimtrj is to use his vote and all his influence in behalf 
of our whole country, by supporting those men only for 
office whose views are in accordance with a broad and 
comprehensive nationality. Viewed in this light, Mr. 
Buchanan occupies before the country an enviable posi- 
tion. His record is thoroughly consistent. Whether 
agitation on the subject of slavery came from the North 
or from the South, he has discouraged it, and, in com- 
mon with the patriotic men of both parties, has used his 
best talents to secure peace and a fraternal feeling in 
the brotherhood of the nation. 

But whilst Mr, Buchanan has ever shown a firm and 
determined hostility to abolitionism, and the agitation of 
the slavery question generally, he has nevertheless al- 
ways upheld the constitutional rights of citizens, when 
others, animated by an unwise zeal and impulsive na- 
tures, have sought to deny them. 

On presenting to the Senate a memorial of the Quar- 
terly Meeting of the Society of Friends, praying for 
the abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia, on 
the 2d of March, 1836, Mr. Buchanan denied any design 
on the part of the people of Pennsylvania to interfere 
with the institution of slavery in the Southern States. 
That was foreign to the feelings of his constituents; 
although they were all opposed to slavery in the abstract. 
But he thought the gentleman (Mr. Calhoun) and his 
friends were going too far in taking ground hostile to the 
reception of -petitions. 

''We have," said Mr. Buchanan, "just as little 
right to interfere with slavery in the South, as we 
have to touch the right of petition. Whence is the 
right derived? Can a Kepublican Government exist 
without it ? Man might as well attempt to exist without 
inhaling the vital air. No government possessing any of 
the vital elements of liberty, has ever existed, or can ever 
exist, unless its citizens or subjects enjoy this right. 



THE SLAVERY QUESTION. 95 

From the very structure of your govcrniricnt — froin tlic 
very establishment of a Senate and House of Repi-esent- 
atives, the right of petition naturally an<l necessarily 
resulted. A representative rei)ublic, established by the 
people, without the people having a right to make their 
wants and their wishes known to their servants, would 
be the most palpable absurdity. This right, even if it 
were not expressly sanctioned by the Constitution, would 
result from its very nature. It could not be controlled 
by any action of Congress, or either branch of it. If the 
Constitution had been silent upon the subject, the only 
consequence would be that it would stand in the very 
front rank of those rights of the people which are 
expressly guaranteed to them by the ninth article of the 
amendments to that instrument, inserted from abundant 
but necessary caution. I shall read this article. It de- 
clares that ' the enumeration in the Constitution of cer- 
tain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage 
others retained by the people.' It would, without any 
express provision, have stood in the same rank with the 
liberty of speech and of the press, and have been entirely 
beyond the control of the Government. It is a right 
which could not have been infringed, without extinguish- 
ing the vital spirit of our institutions. If any had been 
so bold as to attempt to violate it, it would have been a 
conclusive argument to say to them that the Constitu- 
tion has given you no power over the right of petition, 
and you dare not touch it." 

The remaining portion of the speech is mainly taken 
up with replying to Mr. Calhoun. Mr. Buchanan moved 
that the prayer of the petitioners be denied, but firmly 
maintained the right to petition. 

In February, 1839, Mr. Morris, of Ohio, introduced 
into the Senate a resolution directing the Committee on 
Judiciary to inquire into certain matters pertaining to 
the institution of slavery in the States and Territories, 
and to report thereon to the Senate. When the subject 
subsequently came up, Mr. Buchanan voted against a 
motion to lay the resolution on the table. He stated 
that, " from his whole course on the sutject of abolition 



96 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAl^. 

petitions, he supposed no person would suspect him of 
being friendly to them or to their object. Bat fair play 
was a jewel ; and he thou'ght that the senator from Ohio 
(Mr. Mon-is) had a right to be heard, and this being 
done, he -^^-Rs willing to take any course which might 
put the subject effectually at rest." 

In the Senate, Feb. 13, 1840, Mr. Clay presented a pe- 
tition praying the abolition of slavery. After remarks 
from Mr. Clay, Calhoun, and others, Mr. Buchanan 
moved to lay the petition on the table. He did so, he 
said, " ta preclude debate and agitation.'^ In the course 
Qf his remarks he made use of the following language : 

"The ci'isis is come, and the fanaticism which threatened 
to invade the constitutional rights of the South, and tO' 
dissolve the Union, has been nearly extingiiished. The 
battle has been fought where it must ever be fought, not 
in the South but the North. It is we of the E"orth who 
must ever sustain the shock in such a contest. Under 
such circumstances I appeal most solemnly to senators 
from the slaveholding States, whether they ought not to 
be governed in a great degree by our advice as to the 
mode in which these abolition petitions shall be treated. 
It is impossible, after all which has passed, that they can 
doubt our devotion to the constitutional rights of the 
South. Let me assure them that our greatest danger is 
from agitation here. Excitement is the element on 
which abolition lives, moves, and has its being. A 
flame kindled in the capitol would soon pervade the 
Union. Let a question now be raised upon the abstract 
right of petition — let the enemies of abolition in this 
body divide upon this question, and they probably 
would, and they will jeopardize the great cause, to the 
maintenance of which they are all devoted in this un- 
profitable strife. The discussion of the abolition ques- 
tion here can do no possible good and may do much 
positive harm. When did ever fanaticism yield to the 
voice of reason ? Let it alone and it will soon burn nit 
for want of the fuel on which feeds." 

In the exciting debate during, the Congress of 1836, 



THE SLAVERY QUESTION. 97 

on the subject of circulatirig incendiary documents 
throngh the mails of the United States, Mi Buchanan 
spoke repeatedly in support of the message cf Mr. Van 
Buren, demanding th(5 interference of the National 
Legislature to prevent the dissemination of appeals 
among the slaves of the South to rise in servile insur- 
rection against the people of that quarter of the country ; 
and on the question of the abolition of slavery in the 
Distj'ict of Columbia, Mr. Buchanan used the following 
emphatic language : 

" What is now asked by these memorialists ? That in 
this District of ten miles square — a District carved out 
of tw^o slaveholding States, and surrounded by them on 
alL sides — slavery shall be abolished ! What would be 
the effects of granting their request ? You would thus 
erect a citadel in the very hearts of these States, upon a 
territory w^hich they have ceded to you for a far differ- 
ent purpose, from which abolitionists and incendiaries 
could securely attack the peace and safety of their citi- 
zens. You establish a spot within the slaveholding 
States which w-ould be a -city of refuge for runaway 
slaves. You create by law a central point- from which 
trains of gunpowder may be securely laid, extending 
into the surrounding States, which may at any moment 
produce a fearful and destructive explosion. By passing 
such a law, you introduce the enemy into the very bbsom 
of these two States, and afford him every opportunity to 
produce a servile insurrection. Is there any reasonable 
man who can for one moment suppose that Virginia and 
Maryland would have ceded the District of Columbia to 
the United States, if they had entertained the slightest 
idea that Congress would ever use it for any such pm*- 
pose ? They ceded it for your use, for your convenience, 
and not for their own destruction. When slavery ceases 
to exist under the laws of Virginia and Maryland, then, 
and not till then, ought it to be abolished in the District 
of Columbia." 

When, at the same session of Congress, the two bills 
were reported, admitting the Territories of Michigan and 



98 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

Arkansas as States into tlie American Union, Mr. Bu- 
chanan was selected as the ^N^orthern Senator who should 
present the bill admitting Arkansas, and advocate it 
before the Senate, which he did with signal ability ; 
and Mr. Benton was chosen as the Southern Senator 
who was to present and advocate the bill admitting 
Michigan into the Union. During the exciting debates 
on these issues, Mr. Buchanan spoke repeatedly. He 
took the broad ground that the people of the Territory, 
having formed a E-epublican Constitution, after the 
model of the other States, could be and should be admit- 
ted into the Union irrespective of slavery, and that Con- 
gress could not arid should not interfere to prevent their 
admission for any such reason as is now urged against 
the admission of Kansas. 

In his celebrated speech on the annexation of Texas, 
delivered in the Senate on the 8th of June, 1844, Mr. 
Buchanan said : 

" In arriving at the conclusion to support this treaty 
(the annexation of Texas) I had to encounter but one se- 
rious obstacle, and this was the question of slavery. 
Whilst I ever maintained, and ever shall maintain, in 
their full force and vigor, the constitutional rights of 
the Southern States over their slave property, I yet feel 
a strong repugnance, by any act of mine, to extend the 
present limits of the Union over a new slaveholding ter- 
ritory. After mature reflection, however, I overcame^ 
these scruples, and now believe that the acquisition of 
Texas will be the means of limiting, and not enlarging, 
the dominion of slavery. In the government of the 
world, Providence generally produces great changes by 
gradual means. There is nothing rash in the counsel of 
the Almighty. May not, then, the acquisition of Texas 
be the means of gradually drawing the slaves far to the 
south, to a climate more congenial to their nature, and 
may they not finally pass off into Mexico, and there min- 
gle with a race where no prejudice exists against their 
color ? The Mexican nation is composed of Spaniards, 
Indians, and negroes, blended together in every vanety, 



THE SLAVERY QUESTION. 99 

who would receive our slaves on terms of perfect social 
equality. To this condition they never can be admitted 
in the United States. Tliat the acquisition of Texas 
would, ereloug, convert Maryland, Yiri^iuia, Kentucky, 
and Missouri, and probably others of the more northern 
slave States into free States, I entertain not a doubt. In 
fact, public opinion was gradually accomplishing this 
happy result, when the process was arrested by tlie mad 
interference of the abolitionists. A measure, having di- 
rectly in view the gradual abolition of slavery, came 
within one vote, if my memory serves me, of passing the 
House of Delegates of Virginia shortly before the aboli- 
tion excitement commenced. Tliere was then in that 
State a powerful, influential, and growing party in favor 
of gradual emancipation, and they were animated to 
exertion by the brightest hopes of success ; but the in- 
terference of fanatics from abroad, has so effectually 
turned back the tide of public opinion, that no individual 
would now venture to offer such a proposition in the 
Virginia legislature. The efforts of the abolitionists, 
whe'ther so intended or not, have long postponed the 
day of emancipation." 

When the Wilmot Proviso was introduced into Con- 
gress, it was James Buchanan who at once denounced, 
and exposed, and rallied the Democracy against it. 

It was during the administration of Mr. Polk that Mr. 
Buchanan, in his letter to the Democracy of Berks 
county, Pennsylvania, first recommended to the North 
and the South that the Missouri line should be extended 
to the Pacific, and that this should be made the basis of 
a final settlement of the slavery question in the Territo- 
ries. The war with Mexico, consequent on the annexa- 
tion of Texas, gave us a vast empire in addition to the 
area which constitutes our beloved Union, and in the 
arguments growing out of the acquisition of California, 
Mr. Buchanan labored earnestly and effectively on the 
side of progress. Mr. Buchanan's le^-ter on this subject 
is of record, and speaks for itself. It is easy to recall 
the vituperation which his proposition to extend the Mis- 



iOO LIFE ^OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAI^. 

souri line called forth from those who now clar^ br for its 
restoration, and who, in insane forge tfitin ess of their hos- 
tility to it a few years ago, set themselvet up as its pe- 
culiar champions. 

Mr. Buchanan's recommendation of an extension of 
the Missouri line was far in advance of public sentiment. 
It was hailed in the South by all parties as an exhibition 
of firmness only too rare in those days among Northern 
men, and it was appreciated by the truly national men 
of the free States. Would it not be strangely unjust, if 
this proposal of Mr. Buchanan should now be cited to 
prove him unsound upon existing issues ? The spirit 
which actuated Mr. Buchanan in 1847, when he WTote 
his letter recommending the extension of the Missouri 
line, was to promote harmony among the States of this 
Union, by recognizing the principle of equality among 
the States, in regard to the common Territories of the 
Union ; and now, when the Missouri line has been su- 
perseded by another plan of settlement, the ISTebraska 
Kansas Act, based upon the same sentiment of State 
equality, all patriotic men will cheerfully abide by and 
vigilantly maintain it against the inroads of that aboli- 
tion fusion which once more threatens to assail the con- 
stitutional rights of the South. The country will find, 
among its public men, no truer or firmer advocate and 
defender of the great principle of popular sovereignty, 
as embodied in the Nebraska Bill, than James Bu- 
chanan. 



THE FINE IMPOSED AGAINST GENERAL JACKSON. 

Probably the most interesting part of Mr. Buchanan's 
history was his early and effective support of General 
Jackson for the Presidency. He was one of the first ad- 
vocates of the hero of New Orleans. More than thirty 
years ago, as a member of the House of Representatives 
of the United States, he was recognized as among the 



FINE AGAINST GENERAL JACKSON. 101 

most active and devoted friends of Jackson. Distin- 
guished for his eloquence and his judgment, even in that 
period of his life, he contributed greatly to produce the 
state of feeling which afterwards put General Jackson 
forward as the Democratic candidate, — Pennsylvania 
taking the lead. 

In the debate which took place in the Senate in April 
and May, 1842, on the proposition to refund to General 
Jackson $1,000, the amount of the fine imposed upon, 
him by Judge Hall, for refusing to answer to a writ of 
habeas corpus^ and for expelling Judge Hall from the 
camp soon after the battle of New Orleans, and while 
the city of New Orleans was still under martial law, Mr. 
Buchanan made a powerful,- able, and eloquent speech 
in favor of the proposition. After reciting the facts, 
Mr. Buchanan said : 

" What a spectacle did that court (Judge Hall's) pre- 
sent ! There sat an angry judge to decide his own cause, 
and to avenge real or supposed insults against himself; 
and here stood the victor and hero of "New Orleans as a 
€riminal at the bar. He was not even permitted to utter 
a word in his own defence. Meanwhile the enthusiasm 
of the people, whose beautiful city he had saved from 
the dreadful fate to which it had been destined by the 
enemy, knew no bounds. Even the venerable prelate of 
that city, at the head of his flock, had poured out their 
thanks to the General as their savior and deliverer under 
Almighty God, The court-house was crowded to excess 
by this excited and grateful people, who witnessed the 
sentence of the judge inflicting a fine of $1,000 upon 
the man to whom they owed their safety. He bore the 
indignity with patience and submission, and paid the fine 
without a murmur. Instead of receiving a noble recom- 
pense for his glorious defence of New Orleans, which 
w^ould have been granted by his country, did not our in- 
stitutions wisely forbid such grants, he vras fined $1,000, 
which has gone into the public treasury. And the ques- 
tion now is, shall that country now retain or refund the 
money. The General believes, that while this money is 



102 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

retained, a blot remains upon his character ; and it is not 
for the sake of the paltry sum, but to remove the blot, 
that he desires the passage of the present bill. But may 
it not be said, with more justice, that a deep stain will 
remain upon the character of his country until it is wiped 
away by refunding the whole sum, principal and inter- 
est, to the uttermost farthing ? Let justice be done to 
this venerable man before he leaves us forever. He has 
eloquently stated, in his letter to the Senator fi^om Mis- 
souri (Mr. Benton), that the sands of his life have nearly 
run. And shall we permit him to go down to the- grave 
before we perform this act of justice to his character. I 
trust not. I am more mistaken than I have ever been, 
if there will not be one enthusiastic and united feeling 
throughout the country, without distinction of party, in 
favor of refunding this money. If money merely were 
the object, not the justice of Congress, and the fine had 
amounted to $100,000 instead of $1,000, the whole coun- 
try would now follow the noble example of the ladies of 
l^ew Orleans, and subscribe the amount in four and 
twenty hours. Now, I am greatly mistaken in my fatr 
countrywomen if it would not be subscribed by a hun- 
dred thousand ladies, who would each consider it a 
privilege to contribute their dollar. But, it is justice to 
his character, and not money, which the General de- 
sires. If not now, ere long this will be rendered to 
him, as certainly as that the American people are just." 



THE DEMOCRACY. 

In looking over the field of statesmanship in the present 
and in. the past, and viewing the political acts of those 
who have been leaders of the hosts of Democracy, it is 
not often that we can point to one, who, through thirty 
years of active participation in the strifes of parties, has 
preserved such a uniform, consistent, and firm, yet mode- 
rate course in his career, as Mr. Buchanan. His speeches 
and acts upon all the great questions which have been 
agitated since new party issues were framed in the 
period extending from 1S25 to 1830, shows a uniformity 



THE DEMOCRACY. 103 

of sentiment and often of expression nsed, rarely seen in 
the acts of others. Whilst many, who years since were 
active in sustaining democratic principles, and worked 
with a lively zeal to secnre their recognition and incor- 
poration into our governmental structure, have proved 
recreant to the cause they espoused, and that, too, after 
having enjoyed high honors, bestowed on them by the 
potent voice of the Democracy ; and whilst others still 
faithful to Democratic principles, have at times commit- 
ted errors which were errors of judgment more than 
errors of heart ; Mr. Buchanan stands now before the 
world, with political antecedents extending through a 
period of more than thirty years, showing a consistency 
which any statesman may be prond of. The fundamen- 
tal principles of Democracy have been his political idol ; 
and in future years the historian will look in vain for 
higher and more eloquent encomiums of Democracy, 
than those w^hich have fallen from his lips or have been 
inscribed by his pen. In the fall of 1852 in a political 
speech made by him in Pennsylvania, but a short time 
previous to the Presidential election of that year, Mr. 
Buchanan used the following language : 

" And now, fellow-citizens, what a glorious party the 
Democratic party has ever been ! Man is but the being 
01 a summer's day, whilst principles are eternal. The 
generations of mortals, one after another, rise and sink, 
and are forgotten; but the principles of Democracy, 
which we have inherited from our revolutionary fathers, 
will endure to bless mankind throughout all generations. 
Is there any Democrat within the sound of my voice, is 
there any Democrat throughout the broad limits of good 
and great old Democratic Pennsylvania, who will aban- 
don these sacred principles for the sake of following 
in the train of a- military conqueror, and shouting for 
the hero of Lundy's Lane, Cerro Gordo, and Chapul- 
tepec ?" 



104 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

POLITICAL PROSCRIPTION. 

When tens of thousands of our citizens in different 
States of our Union, led by a wild and misdirected en- 
thusiasm, are aiming to proscribe large numbers of our 
inhabitants because of tlie place of their birth and their 
religious views, in direct contradiction of the principles 
upon whidi our institutions are based, it is gratifying to 
see, in the whole public life of one of our first states- 
men, a living protest against all movements aiming at 
political proscription. 

On the first of April, 1836, the bill for the admission 
of Michigan being under consideration, Mr. Buciianan 
supported it, -maintaining, in opposition to Mr. Southard 
of ISTew Jersey, and others, that, under the ordinance of 
178 T, aliens who were residents of the Northwestern Ter- 
ritory had a clear right to exercise the elective franchise. 
He urged that the language of the ordinance was exact 
and explicit on this point, and that Congress had repeat- 
edly, in relation to Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, placed 
the same construction upon it he had done. That as the 
fifth article of the ordinance declared that "whenever 
any of the said States (to be formed out of the ]^orth- 
western Territory) shall have sixty tliousand free inhab- 
itants therein, such State shall be admitted by its dele- 
gates into the Congress of the United States, on an equal 
footing with the original States, in all respects what- 
ever," &c. ; and that as they had a right to determine 
wdiich of the sixty thousand free inhabitants should be 
electors of delegates to their own convention for that 
purpose, and which of them should not, it, rested solely 
within their own discretion, w^hether the elective fran- 
chise should be confined to the citizens of the United 
States, or be extended to other inhabitants of the Terri- 
tory. Before closing his remarks on the bill, Mr. Bu- 
chanan contended for a plain, common-sense construction 
of the Constitution, in the following words : 



POLITICAL PROSCRIPTION. 105 

*'The older I 2:row, the more I am inclined to be v.liat ia 
called a 'State Eights man.' The peace and security of 
this Union depend npon giving to the Constitution a lit- 
eral and fair construction, such as would be placed upon 
it by a plain, intelligent man, and not by ingenious con- 
structions to increase the powers of this government, and 
thereby diminish those of the States. The rights of the 
States, reserved to them by that instrument, ougiit ever 
to be held sacred. If, then, the Constitution leaves to 
them to decide according to their own discretion, unre- 
stricted and unlimited, who shall be electors, it follows 
as a necessary Tonsequence that they may, if they think 
proper, confer upon resident aliens the right of voting." 

And at the same time, in the very same speech from 
which the above is copied, he made the following elo- 
quent allusion to the adopted citizens : 

''The territory ceded by Virginia to the United States 
was sufficiently extensive for an immense empire. The 
parties to this compact of cession contemplated that it 
would form five sovereign States of the Union. At that 
early period we had just emerged from our revolutionary 
struggle, and none of the jealousy was then felt against 
foreigners, and particularly against Irish foreigners, 
which now appears to haunt some gentlemen. There 
had then been no attempt to get up a l^ative American 
party in this country. The blood of the gallant Irish 
had 'flowed freely upon every battle-field in defence of 
the liberties we" now enjoy'. Besides, the Senate will 
well recollect that the ordinance was passed before the 
adoption of our present constitution, and whilst the pow- 
er of naturalization remained with the several States. 
In some, and in perhaps all of them, it required so short 
a residence, and so little trouble to be changed from an 
alien to a citizen, that the process could be performed 
without the least difficulty. I repeat, that no jealousy 
whatever then Existed agamst foreigners." 

In June, 1841:, Mr. Buchanan presented a memorial 
signed by citizens of Philadelphia, asking for such altera- 
tion in the naturalization laws as would require from all 

5* 



106 LIFE OF HON. JAMES EUCHAXAI\. 

foreigners desirous of becoming citizens of the United 
States, a residence of twenty-one years after their decla- 
ration of becoming snch before thej be admitted to the 
same j^olitical privileges as native citizens. 

In presenting th* memorial Mr. Buchanan said, that 
" whilst it always afforded him pleasure to comply with 
the recpest of any portion of his constituents, he felt 
himself constrained by a sense of duty, to declare that 
he could not advocate the prayer of the memorialists. 
He was opposed to any change in the naturalization laws, 
and he. could not consent that a foreigner should be com- 
pelled to remain in this country so long a period as 
twenty-one years, after declaring his intention to be a 
citizen of the United States, before he could carry his 
intentions into execution. The memorialists were anx- 
ious to have the questions decided with as little delay as 
possible ; and Mr. B. thought there were imperative rea- 
sons why this should be done. IIo moved a reference to 
the judiciary committee." 

On the 7th of October, 1853, during the pendency of 
the presidential campaign that resulted in the triumph- 
ant election of Mr. Pierce as Chief Magistrate of the na- 
tion, Mr. Buchanan made a speech at a mass meeting of 
the democracy assembled at Greensburgh, Westmore- 
land Co., Penn. The subjoined remarks, which we ex- 
tract from that speech, will farther indicate Mr. Buchan- 
an's views upon the subject of the political proscription 
of men 'because of their religious views, or the accident 
of birthplace, 

"From my soui," says Mr. Buchanan, "I abhor the 
practice of mixing up religion with politics. The doc- 
trine of all our constitutions, both Federal and State, is 
that every man has an indefeasible right to vrorship his 
God according to the dictates of hTs own conscience. 
He is both a bigot and a tyrant who would interfere with 
that sacred right.^ When a candidate is before the peo- 
ple for office, tlie inquiry ought never even to be made, 



POLITICAL PROSCRIPTION. 107 

what form of relii^ioiis Mth he professes; but cnly, in 
the language of Mr. Jefferson, 'Is he honest, is lie capa- 
ble.' 

^"Democratic Americans!' What a name f)r a Ka- 
tive American party! when all the records of our past 
history prove that American Democrats have ever open- 
ed wide their arms to receive foreigners Hying I'rom op- 
pression in their native land, and have always bestowed 
on them the rights of American citizens, after a brief pe- 
riod of residence in this country. The Democratic ])ai-ty 
have always ^loried in this policy, and its fruits have 
been to increase our population and our power with un- 
exampled rapidity, and to furnish our country with vast 
numbers of industrious, patriotic, ancj useful citizens. 
Surely, the name of ' Democratic Americans' was an un- 
fortunate designation- for the Native American party. 

"The Native American party, an 'American excel- 
lence' and the glory of its foundership, belongs to 
George Washington ! No, fellow-citizens, the American 
peopFe will rise up with one accord to vmdicate the 
memory of that illustrious man from such an imputation. 
As loner as the recent memory of our revolutionary 
8trucro-le remained vividly impressed on the hearts ot our 
count^J-ymen, no such partv could have ever existed. 
The recollection of Lafayette, De Kalb, Montgomery 
Kosciusko, and a long list of foreigners, both officers and 
soldiers, who freely shed their blood to secure our liber- 
ties would have rendered such ingratitude impossible. 
Our revolutionary army was filled with the brave and 
patriotic natives of other lands ; and George Washington 
was their commander-in-chief. Would he have ever 
closed the door ao-ainst the admission of foreigners to 
therio-hts of American citizens? Let his acts speak lor 
themselves. So early as the 26th of March, 1790, Gen- 
eral Washington, as President of the United States, ap- 
proved the first law which ever passed Congress on the 
subiect of naturalization ; and this only reqmred a msi- 
dence of two vears, previous to the adoption ot a tor- 
eio-ner as an American citizen. On the 29th ot January, 
17'95, the term of residence was extended by Congress to 
five years, and thus it remained throughout General 
Washington's administration, and until after the acce^i- 



108 LIFE OF HOX. JAMES BUCIIANAX.' 

sion of John Adams to the Presidency. In his adminis- 
tration, which will ever be known in history as the reign 
of terror, as the era of alien and sedition Ikws, an Act 
was passed on the 18th of Jnne, 1798, which prohibited 
any foreigner from becoming a citizen until after a resi- 
dence of fourteen years ; and this is the law, or else per- 
petual exclusion, which General Scott preferred, and 
which the I^atiye American party now desire to restore. 
" The presidential election of 1801 secured the ascend 
ancy of the Democratic party, and under the administra- 
tion of Thomas Jefferson, its great apostle, on the 14th of 
April, 1802, the term of residence previous to naturaliza- 
tion was restored to five years, what it had been under 
General Washington, and where it has ever since re- 
mained. No, fellow-citizens, the Father of his Country 
\vas jieyer a I^atiye American. This 'American excel- 
lence' never belono^ed to him." 



TARIFF. 

In his speech, delivered in the Senate April 7th, 1842, 
upon a different subject, Mr. Buchanan incidentally ex- 
presses his views upon the subject of a tariff. He says : 

" Some of the advocates of a high protective tariff 
throughout the country desire that we should give away 
the lands in order to create the necessity for imposing 
higher duties on imports. Sir, I am not in favor of a 
high protective tariff. I am not in favor of raising more 
revenue from imports than is necessary to support the 
administration of the government, and gradually extin- 
guish .the public debt. In raising this revenue, how- 
ever, I would make, so far as my vote or voice may have 
influence, a discrimination — a moderate and just dis- 
crimination, in favor of the great interests of the coun- 
try — its agriculture, its manufactures, and its commerce. 
.... I would affoi'd incidental encouragement and pro- 
tection to those great interests which will render us in^ 
dependent of foreign nations for articles of indispensable 
necessity, both in peace and war. To impose a tariff 
merely for the sake of protection — to make this the 



CHARGE OF BARGAIN AND SALE. 109 



principle instead of tlie incident, would, in mj opinion, 
be not only unwise, but might be destructive to the very 
interests sought to be protected." 



THE OHAKGE OF BARGAIN AND SALE. 

Soon after the exciting contest in the House of Rep- 
resentatives in 1825, which resulted in the election of 
John Quincy Adams to the Presidency, charges of "bar- 
gain and sale" in the conduct of that contest were made,^ 
and nrged with great vehemence, both on the floors of 
Congress and throughout the press ; and Mr. Buchanan 
was charged with complicity in the alleged plot. If 
there were no other evidence going to exonerate Mr. 
Buchanan from this nnfonnded charge, the fact alone 
that General Jackson, who never forgave a deliberate 
injury, tendered to Mr. Buchanan the misaon to Eussia 
immediately after his accession to the Presidency in 
1829, would dispel all doubts that might exist with any 
reasonable mind. 

But there are other proofs. The charges are dis- 
proved by the letters of Mr. Clay himself, who was one 
of the important actors in that contest, by the corre- 
spondence of his friends, and by the direct statement of 
his own chosen biographer. 

In Mallorv's Life of Henry Clay, volume 1, page loS, 
reference is made to the charge against Mr. Clay and his 
friends, of having proposed, through Mr. Buchanan, to 
2;ive General Jackson their support on certain condi- 
tions Mr. Clay indignantly repelled the charge, and 
his biooT^pher adds : " Mr. Buchanan flatly and prompt- 
ly denied that such a proposition had been made through 
him, as had been alleged, and exonerated ifr. Clay and 
Us adherents from all connection with it." 

Mr. Clay himself, in a letter to Judge Brooke, ot V ii- 
ginia, dated Washington, August U, 1827 (see his pri- 
vate correspondence, published by Colton), states em. 



110 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHAN.^N. 

phatically in regard to the same matter : " I could .lot^ 
desire a stronger statement from Mr. Buchanan. The 
tables are completely turned." 

Again : The Hon. R. P. Letcher, of Kentucky, a de- 
voted personal and political friend of Mr, Clay's, writes 
to the latter, under date of August 27, 1827, in relation 
to the same point in Mr. Buchanan's response: "This 
answer is well put together. As they say in Connecti- 
cut, 'there is a great deal of good reading in Buck's 
reply.' It is modest and genteel, yet strong and conclu- 
sive. I am truly delighted with the manner in which 
]3. has acquitted himself." 

The foregoing extracts show how unfortunate those are 
who now attempt to revive this wornout and false accu- 
sation against Mr. Buchanan. 

SECRET SESSION OF HOUSE. 

The great contest in the House of Representatives for 
the Presidency (the people having failed to make a 
choice in 1824), came up on the 2d of February, 1825. 
On the third of the rules reported to govern the House 
during the balloting for President, and which directed 
the doors to be closed against all except Senators and 
officers of the House, and the clearing of the galleries 
at the request of any one State, Mr. Buchanan contended 
that they were to elect a President, not by virtue of the 
Constitution, as was maintained by the member from 
Delaware (Mr. McLane), but as representatives of the 
people. The people, he believed, plainly had a right to 
be present and ins23ect the proceedings. He protested 
against going into a secret conclave when the House 
should decide this all-important question. 

" What are the consequences," said Mr. B., " which 
will result from closing the galleries ? We should im- 
part to the election an air of mystery. We should give 
exercise to the imaginations of the multitude, in conjee- 



CHARGE OF FEDERALISM. Ill 

taring what scenes are enacted in this lialL Busy rjnior, 
with her hundred tongues, will circulate reports of 
wicked combinations and corruptions which liave no ex- 
istence. Let the people see what we are doing. Let 
them know that it is neither more nor less tlian putting 
our ballots into the boxes, and they will soon become sat 
isfied with the spectacle and retire." 



THE CHARGE OF FEDERALISM. 

Hardly one of our public men has served the country 
so long, and has so few salient points, as Mr. Buchanan. 
This charge of Federalism, in connection with the Lan- 
caster oration, is pretty well put to rest by the following 
letter, written by Mr. Buchanan in 1847, to the Hon. G. 
W. Jones, of Tennessee. We give it below : 

Washington, April 23, 1847. 

My Dear Sir : — I have this moment received your letter of 
the 15th instant, and hasten to return an answer. 

In one respect, I have been fortunate enough as a public man. 
My political enemies are obliged to go back for more than 
thirty years to find plausible charges against me. 

In 1814, when a very young man (being this day fifty-six 
years of age), I made my first public speech before a meeting of 
my fellow-citizens of Lancaster. The object of this speech was to 
urge upon them the duty of volunteering their ser\dces in de- 
fence of their invaded country. A volunteer company was raised 
upon the spot, in which I was the first, I believe, to enter my 
name as a private. We forthw^ith proceeded to Baltimore, and 
served until we were honorably discharged. 

In October, 1814, 1 was elected a member of the Pennsylvania 
Legislature, and in that body gave my support to every measure 
calculated in my opinion to aid the country against the com- 
mon enemy. 

In 1815, after peace had been concluded, I did express opin- 
ions in relation to the causes and conduct of the war, which I 
very soon after regretted and recalled. Since that peiiod I have 
been ten years a member of the House of Representatives, and 
an equal time of the Senate, acting a part on eveiy great ques- 
tion. My political enemies, finding nothing assailable through- 
out this long public career, now resort back to my youthful 



112 LIFE OF 1102s. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

years for expressions to injure ray political, cliaracier. The brave 
and generous citizens of Tennessee, to whatever polilieal party 
they may belong, will agree that this is a hard measure of jus- 
tice ; and it is still harder that, for this reason, they should con- 
demn the President for having voluntarily offered me a seat in 
his Cabinet. 

I never deemed it proper, at my period of life, wliile the coun- 
try was actually engaged in war with a foreign enemy, to utter 
a sentiment which could interfere with its successful prosecution. 
While the war with Great Britain was raging, I should have 
deemed it little better than moral treason to paralyze the arm of 
the Government while dealing blows against the enemy. After 
peace was concluded, the case was then different. My enemies 
cannot point to an expression uttered by me, during the contin- 
uance of the war, which was not favorable to its vigorous prose- 
cution. 

From yom" friend, very respectfully, 

Jx\MES BUCHANAN. 

Hon. George W. Jones. 



Probably no man has been more distinguished dnring 
the whole of his lifetime for his benevolence, than Mr. 
Buchanan. His wealth, as is well known, is not great, 
and what he has secured of this world's goods, he has 
secured by hard labor in his profession. . But in his own 
neighborhood and throughout the State of Pennsylvania, 
it is a fact known by all, that no demand has ever been 
made upon him for any charitable object worthy^ of aid, 
which has not been freely and generously responded to. 
Two instances illustrating this will suffice in a woJ%: so 
limited in space as this, although hundreds of cases 
cotdd be presented, in which the same liberal disposi- 
tion on Mr. Buchanan's part has been manifested. 

On the 10th of April, 1845, a large portion of Pitts- 
burg w^as laid in ashes by the great fire. There was 
no telegraph to Pittsburg in those days, and the news 
of our calamity could only reach Washington by the 
14th of April. Mr. Buchanan was then Secretary of 



MR. buchaNxVn's benevolence. 113 

State. On that da}i^lie following document left AYash- 
ington for Pittsburg, addressed by Mr. Buchanan to 
Wm. J. Ho^vard, then mayor of that city. Comment is 
unnecessary, even to those maligners who would repre 
sent Mr. Buchanan as cold and selfish : 

[$500] Washington, April 14, 1845. 

Cashier of the Bank of the Metropolis — Pay to the order of 
W. J. Howard, Mayor of the city of Pittsburg, for the use of 
the sufferers by the late fire, Five hundred dollars. 

Dear Sir : — You will please to accept and apply the above 
towards the relief of the sufferers in the late dreadful calamity. 
My feelings of sympathy and compassion have never been so 
strongly excited upon any similar occasion. But let the people 
be of good cheer and exert their accustomed energy, and under 
the blessing of Providence, all will yet be well, and Pittsburg 
will arise more glorious than ever from its ashes. 

James Buchanan. 
W. J. Howard, Esq. 

The Lancaster (Pa.) Exjpress^ a ]Inow-N"othing Kepub- 
lican paper, published in the immediate neighborhood 
ot Mr. Buchanan's residence, is compelled to bear testi- 
mony to his nnbending integrity and blameless life. 
After a few introductory remarks, the editor proceeds 
and says : 

We know the man as one of our most respected fellow- 
citizens — a gentleman of unblemished personal integrity and 
unusually agreeable manners in his social intercourse with all 
classes. We know him as a friend of the poor — as a perpetual 
benefactor of the poor widows of this city, who, when the pier- 
cing blasts of each successive wnnter brought shrieks of cold, and 
hunger, and want, in the frail tenements of poverty, could apply 
to the ' Buchanan Relief Donation' for their annual supply of 
wood, and sitting down with their orphaned children in the 
cheerful warmth of a blazing fire, hft their hearts in silent grati- 
tude to God, and teach their httle ones to bless the name of 
James Buchanan. As a citizen, a neighbor, a friend — in a word, 
as simply James Buchanan, we yield to no man in the measure 
of our respect and esteem ; and were he still before us as simply 



114 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

James Buchanan — as lie was a few years, and when he and we 
occupied the same broad Jeffersonian republican platform — 
when at least one of the editors of th^s paper voted with him 
year after year the same democratic ticket — then ours would be 
the more pleasing duty of supporting, instead of opposing, the 
election of our esteemed fellow-citizen and neighbor to the 
highest office in the gift of the American people, and the 
highest position of poHtical distinction in the world. 

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MR. BUCHANAN AND THE COM- 
MITTEE OF THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION. 

Lancaster, June YSth^ 1856. 

Sir : — The National Convention of the Democratic party, 
which assembled at Cincinnati, on the first Monday in June, 
unanimously nominated you as a candidate for the office of 
Pres'ident of the United States. 

We have been directed by the Convention to convey to you 
this intelligence, and to request you, in their name, to accept 
the nomination for the exalted trust which the Chief Magistracy 
of the Union imposes. 

The Convention, founding their action upon the time-honored 
principles of the Democratic party, have announced their views 
in relation to the chief questions wdiich engage the public mind ; ' 
and, while adhering to the truths of the past, have manifested 
the policy of the present in a series of resolutions, to which we 
invoke your. attention. 

The Convention feel assured, in tendering to you this signal 
proof of the respect and esteem of your countrymen, that they 
truly reflect the opinion which the people of the United States 
entertain of your eminent character and distinguished public 
services. They cherish a profound conviction that your eleva- 
tion to the chief office in the Republic will give a moral guar- 
antee to the country that the true principles of the Constitution 
will be asserted and maintained ; that the public tranquillity 
will be established ; that the tumults of faction will be stilled ; 
that our domestic industry will flourish ; that our foreign affairs 
will be conducted with such wisdom and firmness as to assure 
the prosperity of the people at home, while the interests and 
honor of our country are wisely but inflexibly maintained in our. 
intercourse with other nations ; and, especially, that your pubhe 
experience and the confidence of your countrymen will enable 
you to give effect to Democratic principles, so as to render in- 
dissoluble the strong bonds of mutual interest and national gloiy 



t 

LETTER OF ACCErTANCE. 115 

wliicli unite our confederacy and secure the prospcrily of our 
people. 

While we offer to the country our sincere congratulations 
upon the fortunate auspices of the future, we tender to you, per- 
sonally, the assurances of the respect and esteem of 
Your fellow-citizens, 

John E. Ward, 
W. A. Richardson, 
Harrt IIibbard, 
W. B. Lawrence, 
A. G. Brown, 
Jno. L. Manning, 
John Forsyth, 
W. Preston, 
J. Randolph Tucker, 
Horatio Seymour. 
Hon. James Buchanan. 



Wheatland, near Lancaster, ) 
J^ne 16, 1856. \ 

Gentlemen : — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt 
of your communication of the 13th instant, informing me offi- 
cially of ray nomination by the Democratic National Conven- 
tion,"^ recently held at Cincinnati, as the Democratic candidate 
for the office of President of the United States. I shall not at- 
tempt to express the grateful feelings which I entertain towards 
my Democratic fellow-citizens for having deemed me worthy of 
this — the highest political honor on earth — an honor such as 
the people of no other country have the power to bestow. 
Deeply sensible of the vast and varied responsibility attached to 
the station, especially at the present crisis in our affairs, I have 
carefully refrained from seeking the nomination, either by word 
or by deed. Now that it has been offered by the Democratic 
party, I accept it, with diffidence in my own abilities, but with 
an humble trust that, in the event of my election, I may be en- 
abled to discharge my duty in such a manner as to allay do- 
mestic strife, preserve peace and friendship with foreign nations, 
and promote the best interests of the Republic. 

In accepting the nomination, I need scarcely say that I ac- 
cept in the same spirit, the resolutions constituting the platform 
of principles erected by the Convention. To this platform I in-- 
tend to confine myselt^ throughout the canvass, believing that I 
have no right, as the candidate of the Democratic party, by an- 
swering interrogatories, to present new and different issues before 
the people. 



I 

116 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN". 

It will not be expected that in this answer I should specially 
refer to the subject oi' each of the resolutions; and I shall 
therefore confine myself to the two topics now most prominently 
before the people. 

And in the first place, I cordially concur in the sentiments 
expressed by the Convention on the subject of civil and religious 
liberty. No party founded on religious or political intolerance 
towards one class of American citizens, whether born in our own 
or in a foreign land, can long continue to exist in this country. 
We are all equal before God and the Constitution ; and the 
dark spirit of despotism and bigotry which would create odious 
distinctions among our fellow-citizens, will be speedily rebuked 
by a free and enlightened public opinion. 

The agitation on the question of Domestic Slavery has too 
long distracted and divided the people of this Union, and alien- 
ated their affections from each other. This agitation has as- 
sumed many forms since its commencement, but it now seems 
to be directed chiefly to the Territories ; and judging from its 
present character, I think we may safely anticipate that it is 
rapidly approaching a " finality." The recent legislation of 
Congress respecting domestic slavery, derived, as it has been, 
from the original and pure fountain of legitimate political power, 
the will of the majority, promises ere long to allay the danger- 
ous excitement. This legislation is founded upon principles as 
ancient as free government itself, and in accordance with thera,- 
lias simply declared that the people of a Territory, like those of 
a State, shall decide for themselves, whether slavery shall or 
shall not exist within their limits. 

The Nebraska-Kansas Act does no more than give the forca 
of law to this elementary principle of self-government ; de- 
claring it to be " the true intent and meaning of this act not to 
legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it 
therefrom ; but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form 
and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, sub- 
ject only to the Constitution of the United States." This prin- 
ciple will surely not be controverted by any individual of any 
party professing devotion to popular government. Besides, how 
vain and illusory w^ould any other principle prove in practice in 
regard to the Territories ! This is apparent from the fact ad- 
mitted by all, that after a Territory shall have entered the Union 
and become a State, no constitutional power would then exist 
which could prevent it from either abolishing or establishing 
slavery, as the case may be, according to its sovereign will and 
pleasure. 

Most happy would it be for the country if this long agitation 



LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 117 

were at an end. During it? whole proofrcss it has produced no 
practical good to any human being, whilst it has been the source 
of great and dangerous evils. It has alienated and estranged 
one portion of the Union from the other, and has even seriously 
threatened its very existence. To my own personal knowledge, 
it has produced the impression among foreign nations that our 
great and glorious confederacy is in constant danger of dissolu- 
tion. This does us serious injury, because acknowledged power 
and stability always command respect among nations, and are 
among the best securities against unjust aggression, and in favor 
of the maintenance of honorable peace. 

May we not hope that it is the mission of the Democratic 
party, now the only surviving conservative party of the country, 
ere long to overthrow all sectional parties, and restore the peace, 
friendship, and mutual confidence which prevailed in the good 
old time, among the different members of the confederacy ? Its 
character is strictly national, and it therefore asserts no principle 
for the guidance of the Federal Government which is not adopt- 
*«d and sustained by its members in each and every State. For 
this reason, it is everywhere the same determined foe of all geo- 
graphical parties, so much and so justly dreaded by the Father 
of his Country. From its very nature, it must continue to exist 
so long as there is a Constitution and a Union to preserve. A 
conviction of these truths has induced many -of the purest, the 
ablest, and most independent of our former opponents, who have 
diflfered from us in times gone by upon old and extinct party is- 
sues, to come into our ranks, and devote themselves with us to 
the cause of the Constitution and the Union. Under these cir- 
cumstances, I most cheerfully pledge myself, should the nomi- 
nation of the Convention be ratified by the people, that all the 
power and influence, constitutionally possessed by the Executive, 
shall be exerted, in a firm but conciliatory spirit, during the sin- 
gle term I shall remain in ofiice, to restore the same harmony 
among the sister States which prevailed before this apple of dis- 
cord, in the form of slavery agitation, had been cast into their 
midst. Let the members of the family abstain from intermed- 
dling with the exclusive domestic concerns of each other, and 
cordially unite, on the basis of perfect equality among them- 
selves, in promoting the great national objects of common inter- 
est to all, and the good work will be instantly accomplished. 

In regard to our foreign policy, to which you have referred in 
your communication, — it is quite impossible for any human 
foreknowledge to prescribe positive rules in advance, to regulate 
the conduct of a future Administration in all the exigencies 
which may arise in our various and ever-changing relations with 



118 LIFE OF HON. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

foreign powers. The Federal Government must of necessity 
exercise a sound discretion in dealing with international ques- 
tions as they may occur ; but this under the strict responsibility 
which the Executive must always feel to the people of the 
United States and the judgment of posterity. You will there- 
fore excuse me for not entering into particulars ; whilst I hearti- 
ly concur with you "in the general sentiment, that our foreign 
affairs ought to be conducted with such wisdom and firmness as 
to assure the prosperity of the people at home, whilst the inter- 
ests and honor of our country are wisely but inflexibly main- 
tained abroad. Our foreign policy ought eve^r to be based upon 
the principle of doing justice to all nations, and requiring jus- 
tice from them in return ; and from this principle I shall never 
depart. 

Should I be placed in the Executive Chair, I shall use my 
best exertions to cultivate peace and friendship with all nations, 
believing this to be our highest policy as well as our most im- 
perative duty ; but at the same time, I shall never forget that, 
in case the necessity should arise, which I do not now appre- 
hend, our national rights and national honor must be preserved 
at all hazards and at any sacrifice. 

Firmly convinced that a special Providence governs the af- 
fairs of nations, let us humbly implore his continued blessing 
upon our country, and that he may avert from us the punish- 
ment we justly deserve for being discontented and ungrateful 
whilst enjoying privileges above all nations, under such a Con- 
stitution and such a Union as has never been vouchsafed to any 
other people. 

Yours, very respectfully, 

James Buchanan. 
Hon. John E. "Ward, "W. A. Richardson, Hakry Hibbard, 
W. B. Lawrence, A. G. Brown, John L. Manning, 
John Forsyth, W. Preston, J. Randolph Tuckee, 
and Horatio Seymoub, Committee, <fco. 



A 'Woy\l 0? Uwwswal Iwterest awvV JNleYvll 



TO BE PUBLISHED EARLY IN SEPTEMBER, 

THE PAWNBROKER. 

OB, 

THE WAQES OF AVARICE 

12wjo , Cloth. Price $1 25. 



The Pubishers believe that "The Pawnbroker" Is not Inferior, either in power or 
Interest, to any other work of Fiction that has been yet issued from the American Press ; 
while the local interest it possesses, in consequence of its truthful delineation of New 
York life, forms one of its many attractive features. It is the production of an American 
lady, who is endowed with a fine culture, a refined and polished idea of the requirements 
of Virtue and Civilized Life ; together with a clear insight of the human heart, whether 
bowed down by its own dark depravity, or consoled and elevated by the noble instincts 
of honor and truthfulness. But this is not all ; our authoress is an Artist, and her book 
will do credit to Modern American Literature. 

Her Hero and Heroine are taken from the humblest walks of life ; but our interest 
becomes almost at once, unconsciously enlisted in their welfare, and with intense excite- 
ment, pain, and hope, the thread of the narrative which depicts their chequered, trying 
and varied career, is perused. This eflfect is produced, without bombast or enervating 
sentimentality ; simply because a story founded upon fact is narrated with becoming 
dignity, modesty and consummate Literary Art. The characters introduced throughout 
the work are numerous ; but each possesses a peculiar, marked, and distinct individuality. 

A writer in the Boston Literary Bulletin says of it : 

" I have read the MS. of " The Pawnbroker." Its principal scenes are laid in New 
York, shifting occasionally to New Orleans. It is written with great force, pathos, and 
ingenuity ; and I have no hesitation in prophesying that it will be ranked with " The 
Lamplighter " and " The Wide, Wide World." Throughout the work a moral lesson is 
pointed ; and although prolific in pictures of the most exciting nature, probability is 
never outraged by the introdu tion of mysterious impossibilities. It cannot fail of 
meeting with a large sale, aui enviable popularity." 

LIYERMORE & KUDD, PUBLISHERS, 

310 Broadway, N. Y. 

W. H. Tinson, Stereotvper, 24 Beekman Street. 



^^ — . — 

PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS, 

NEW YORK, 

Having removed to their Large and Commodious Store, 

Would announce to the Trade and Pubhc, that they are prepared to 
supply at Publisliers' Lowest Rates, all the Issues of the day, including 
Standard, Medical, and Theological Works ; and having special 
arrangements with the following Houses: — 

PHILLIPS, SAiMPSOX & CO, Boston. 

TICKNOR & PIELDS, «» 

little' brown & CO., « 

CROSBY, NICHOLS & CO., " 
BLANCHARD & LEA, Pliil/ldclphlJ . 

PARRY & MCMILLAN, " 

LINDSAY & BLAKISTONK, « 

T. B. PETERSON, ** 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., <* 

ir. C. BAIRD, « 

Keep constantly on hand all their Publications, and supply in quantities 
at their Rates. 

BOOK AGEKTS WANTED. 

500 FOR EACH STATE IX THE UNION. 
EFFICIENT AGENTS CAN MAKE FROM .$4 TO $10 PER DAY. 
Copies of any Publication sent by Mail to any part of the Union (post- 
paid) on receipt of the price. 

LIVERMORE & RUDD, PUBLISHERS, 

lAY. N: Y. 



W. H. Tinson, Stereotyper, 24 Beekman Street. 



^31(^Hg^^. 








4. -t«X/'^4* ^0 



i°. \^^' :«: ""-^^ :^": "--^ 








,C; 



,0 



^'^'\ -- 




?",• ..V 



v-;^ 



r^o 









.*<• 



'bv' 



.?i;^ 



-^; 



%. 



^^d« 



V\ERT 
BOOKBINDING 

Cranrville Pa 







